Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley is encouraging the United States to take advantage of the power of stablecoins amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Coley was previously the Head of XRP Institutional Liquidity at Ripple. She also previously worked at Morgan Stanley Foreign Exchange desks in Hong Kong and London. In an article for Coindesk, Coley proposes the use of stablecoins.
Coronavirus is a global problem and the people worldwide are advised to stay at home to reduce the risk of spreading and contracting the virus. However, some operations continue and for Coley, it’s no longer safe for people to pick up money at a bank or transfer it in another location. She is convinced that it’s time for the government to innovate and use a new approach when it comes to distributing checks by mail.
“In the interests of speed and safety, why not consider sending the stimulus in the form of stablecoins as a means to verify the transfer of assets?” Coyle wrote. “Because stablecoins can be distributed digitally, Americans would have immediate access to their funds, alleviating the need to spend hours at a bank to cash a check while removing oneself from a self-imposed quarantine.“
She understands that adopting this approach will have pushbacks and challenges, especially that it’s unknown outside the crypto community. Also, a lack of understanding could translate into a lack of trust and at present both the government and the citizens still need to learn how stablecoins work, how users exchange them into fiat money and see its potentials in making money transfer easier.
Coley also shared several advantages when using stablecoins. First, it doesn’t require recipients to own a house or mailbox to receive them. Second, once the asset is addressed to the recipient, the person can send the money to themselves or others instantly without fees, which is way better than traditional checks. Third, it eliminates postal works and other resources needed to distribute physical checks or prepaid cards.
Meanwhile, in January, Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin launched a new product called “Tether Gold”, which is pegged to physical gold. The digital asset provides the combined benefits of both physical and digital assets while removing the drawbacks of holding gold in more traditional was.