Stablecoins and tribal chiefs: Monetary authority after the GENIUS Act
Stablecoins and tribal chiefs: Monetary authority after the GENIUS Act
- November 19, 2025
- Bill Maurer, social sciences dean, anthropology and law professor, and director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, shares expertise in this piece for Duckbucks
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“The GENIUS Act, passed by the US Congress in July 2025, creates a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance in the United States. This legislation represents more than cryptocurrency regulation; it embodies a shift toward a new form of authority over monetary policy. In fact, in my view, this new form of authority is a contemporary manifestation of patterns that have recurred throughout history when elites adopt new money forms to assert their authority, gather followers and manage their own political positions.
A look not only at the history of monetary change and capture by past elites but, perhaps more surprisingly, the anthropology of tribal societies illustrates the case — and helps pose alternatives that I believe are contained within the technology that gave rise to stablecoins in the first place.”
Continue reading: https://duckbucks.com/a/stablecoins-genius-money
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