The OCC says that banks can use public blockchains as a settlement structure - BIGGEST step I’ve seen so far towards a merging of traditional and crypto markets, and MUCH sooner than I expected – thread on why this step could be both good and bad news: https://www.coindesk.com/occ-banks-stablecoin-payments

1 – good news for crypto markets: this is a nudge to traditional banks to offer support for blockchain infrastructure and even facilitate crypto transactions

2 – good for traditional markets, as it is likely to encourage the emergence of a new type of lower cost and more transparent settlement system

3 – good for the banking sector, potentially opening the door to new types of financial products as well as payment and collateral services (and this is where we are likely to see “mainstream” financial adoption)

4 – good for financial innovation – banks can use stablecoins, but they can also ISSUE them, potentially with bells and whistles and functionalities attached

5 – good for liquidity – more crypto dollars sloshing around a system that allows for interchangeable programmable settlement tokens is likely to allow for better optimization of use of capital

6 – good for the global economy – more efficient cross-border settlements will be good for trade, lowering the costs of documentation and compliance and maybe finally giving blockchain supply chain + trade finance apps the piece they’ve been missing

7 – good for the dollar – with the U.S. leading the charge on this, it is likely that dollar-backed stablecoins will become the de facto global settlement token, further consolidating the dollar’s hegemony

8 – this last point could be bad news for the global financial pyramid – if more economies depend on the dollar, that increases US power and makes the global economy more vulnerable

9 – BUT if public blockchains end up replacing SWIFT, for instance, then the US loses some of its ability to weaponize the dollar by cutting off (or even just threatening to) countries it doesn’t like – so, potentially also good for humanitarian reasons