Because the world shifts from a U.S.-dominated unipolar order to a multipolar panorama led by BRICS nations, the U.S. greenback faces unprecedented strain from declining bond demand and rising debt prices. The Genius Act, handed in July 2025, alerts a daring U.S. technique to counter this by legalizing Treasury-backed stablecoins, unlocking billions in international demand for U.S. bonds.
The blockchain internet hosting these stablecoins will form the worldwide economic system for many years. Bitcoin, with its unmatched decentralization, Lightning Community privateness, and sturdy safety, emerges because the superior option to energy this digital greenback revolution, making certain low switching prices when fiat inevitably fades. This essay explores why the greenback should and can grow to be digitized by way of blockchains and why Bitcoin should grow to be its rails for the U.S. economic system to have a delicate touchdown from the highs of being a worldwide empire.
Finish of the Unipolar World
You may need heard that the world is transitioning from a unipolar world order — the place the USA was the one superpower and will make or break markets and dominate conflicts throughout the globe — to a multipolar world, the place a union of Jap-allied international locations can manage regardless of U.S. international coverage. This japanese alliance is named BRICS and is made up of main international locations like Brazil, Russia, China and India. The inevitable consequence of the rise of BRICS is the restructuring of geopolitics, posing a problem to the hegemony of the U.S. greenback system.
There are numerous apparently remoted knowledge factors that sign this restructuring of the world order. Take, for instance, the USA’ navy alliance with a rustic like Saudi Arabia. The U.S. is not defending the petrodollar settlement, which noticed Saudi oil bought just for {dollars} in change for navy protection of the area. The petrodollar technique was a serious supply of demand for the greenback and was thought-about pivotal to the power of the U.S. economic system because the ’70s, however has successfully ended in recent times — at the least because the begin of the Ukraine conflict, when Saudi Arabia started accepting currencies aside from the greenback for oil-related trades.
The Weakening of the U.S. Bond Market
One other crucial knowledge level within the geopolitical change of the world order is the weakening of the U.S. bond market. Doubts in regards to the long-term creditworthiness of the U.S. authorities are rising. Some have considerations in regards to the nation’s inside political instability, whereas others are skeptical that the present authorities construction can adapt to the quickly altering, high-tech world and the rise of BRICS.
Elon Musk, reportedly the richest man on the earth and arguably the best CEO in historical past, able to working a number of seemingly inconceivable corporations concurrently — reminiscent of SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Firm and X.com — is one in all these skeptics. Musk not too long ago spent months with the Trump administration determining the right way to restructure the federal authorities and the nation’s monetary place by way of DOGE, the Division Of Authorities Effectivity, earlier than an abrupt exit from politics in Might.
Musk not too long ago shocked the web in an All-In Summit look the place he commented on his expertise on the matter, saying, “I haven’t been to DC since Might. The federal government is principally unfixable. I applaud David (Sacks’) noble efforts… however on the finish of the day, in case you have a look at our nationwide debt.. .if AI and robots don’t clear up our nationwide debt, we’re toast.”
If Elon Musk can’t get the U.S. authorities to pivot away from monetary doom, who can?
Doubts of this type are mirrored within the low demand for long-term U.S. bonds, as evidenced by the necessity for larger rates of interest to draw buyers. At this time, the US30Y is at 4.75%, a 17-year excessive. Demand in long-dated auctions of U.S. bonds, just like the US30Y, has additionally trended downward with “disappointing” demand in 2025, in keeping with Reuters.
The weakening demand for long-dated U.S. bonds has vital penalties for the U.S. economic system. The U.S. Treasury has to supply larger rates of interest to entice buyers, in flip growing the funds the U.S. authorities has to make on the curiosity of the nationwide debt. At this time, the U.S. curiosity funds are shut to 1 trillion {dollars} a yr, greater than the entire navy price range of the nation.
If the USA fails to search out sufficient patrons for its future debt, it could battle to pay its quick payments, having to rely as a substitute on the Fed to purchase that debt, which expands its steadiness sheet and the cash provide. The consequences, although advanced, would probably be inflationary on the greenback, additional harming the U.S. economic system.
How Sanctions Wounded the Bond Market
Additional weakening the U.S. bond market, in 2022, the USA manipulated the U.S.-controlled bond market rails towards Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Because the Russians invaded, the U.S. froze Russian treasury reserves held abroad, which have been supposed partly to pay its nationwide debt to Western buyers. In what appears like an try and pressure Russia right into a default, the U.S. additionally reportedly started blocking all makes an attempt made by Russia to repay its personal debt to international bondholders.
A U.S. Treasury spokeswoman confirmed on the time that sure funds have been not being allowed.
“At this time is the deadline for Russia to make one other debt fee,” the spokeswoman stated.
“Starting right now, the U.S. Treasury won’t allow any greenback debt funds to be created from Russian authorities accounts at U.S. monetary establishments. Russia should select between draining remaining beneficial greenback reserves or new income coming in, or default.”
The U.S. successfully weaponized the bond market towards Russia by means of a novel use of its international coverage sanctions regime. However sanctions are a double-edged sword: Since then, international demand for U.S. bonds has weakened as nations not aligned with U.S. international coverage regarded to diversify their danger. China has led this development away from U.S. bonds, its holdings peaked in 2013 at over 1.25 trillion {dollars} and has accelerated downward because the starting of the Ukraine conflict, sitting right now at near 750 billion.
Whereas this occasion demonstrated the devastating effectiveness of sanctions, it additionally deeply wounded confidence within the bond market. Not solely was Russia blocked from paying off its money owed beneath the Biden administration sanctions, additionally harming buyers as collateral injury, however the freezing of its international treasury reserves confirmed the world that in case you, as a sovereign nation, go towards U.S. international coverage, all bets are off — and that features the bond market.
Following the debatable overreach of sanctions from the earlier administration, the Trump admin has backed off from sanctions as a method, since they hurt the U.S. monetary sector, and pivoted to a tariff-based strategy to international coverage. These tariffs to date have had blended outcomes. Whereas the Trump administration boasts document income and infrastructure investments by the non-public sector within the nation, Jap nations have accelerated their collaboration by means of the BRICS alliance.
The current SCO summit in Tianjin, China, introduced collectively world leaders, together with Chinese language President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, amongst others. Probably the most notable information to return out of the SCO summit was a joint pledge by India and China to be “companions not rivals,” an extra step towards the multipolar world order.
The Stablecoin Playbook
Whereas China has divested from U.S. bonds prior to now decade, a brand new purchaser has emerged, rapidly getting into the highest echelons of energy. Tether, a monetary expertise firm born within the early days of Bitcoin and initially constructed on prime of its community by means of the Mastercoin layer-two protocol, right now owns $171 billion value of U.S. bonds, near 1 / 4 of the quantity China owns and greater than most different international locations.
Tether is the issuer of the preferred stablecoin, USDT, with a market cap of 171 billion {dollars} in worth in circulation, equal to its reported bond holdings. The corporate reported $1 billion in earnings for Q1 of 2025, with a easy but sensible enterprise mannequin: purchase short-dated U.S. bonds, emit USDT tokens backed 1-for-1, and pocket the coupon curiosity funds from the U.S. authorities. With 100 staff at the start of the yr, Tether is claimed to be some of the worthwhile corporations per worker on the earth.
Circle, the issuer of USDC and the second-most widespread stablecoin available in the market, additionally holds near $50 billion in short-dated treasuries. Stablecoins are used everywhere in the world, significantly in Latin America and growing nations, as a substitute for native fiat currencies, which undergo far deeper inflation than the greenback and are sometimes hindered by capital controls.
The amount processed by stablecoins right now is past a distinct segment, nerd monetary toy; it’s within the trillions of {dollars}. A 2025 Chainalysis report states, “Between June 2024 and June 2025, USDT processed over $1 trillion per 30 days, peaking at $1.14T in January 2025. USDC, in the meantime, ranged from $1.24T to $3.29T month-to-month. These volumes spotlight the continued centrality of Tether and USDC in crypto market infrastructure, particularly for cross-border funds and institutional exercise.”
Latin America, for instance, accounted for 9.1% of complete crypto worth acquired between 2023 and 2024, with year-to-year utilization progress charges of 40-100%, of which over 50% have been stablecoins, in keeping with a 2024 Latin America-focused report by Chainalysis, demonstrating the robust demand for various currencies within the growing world.
The U.S. wants new demand for its bonds, and that demand exists within the type of demand for the greenback, provided that most individuals all through the world are locked into fiat currencies which are far inferior to these of the USA. If the world transitions to a geopolitical construction that forces the greenback to compete on even phrases with all different fiat currencies, it nonetheless could proceed to be one of the best amongst them. The USA, for all its faults, stays a superpower, with unimaginable wealth, human capital and financial potential, significantly when in comparison with many smaller international locations and their questionable pesos.
Latin America has demonstrated a deep starvation for the greenback, however there’s a provide downside as native nations resist legacy banking greenback rails. Having access to dollar-denominated accounts in lots of international locations outdoors of the USA shouldn’t be simple. Native banks are sometimes tightly regulated and serve on the behest of native governments, who even have an curiosity in defending their peso. The U.S. shouldn’t be the one authorities that understands the worth of printing cash and defending its worth, in spite of everything.
Stablecoins clear up each issues; they create demand for U.S. bonds and might ship dollar-denominated worth to everybody, anyplace on the earth, regardless of the pursuits of their native governments.
Stablecoins, leveraging the censorship-resistant qualities of their underlying blockchains, can present people believable deniability and privateness from their native state, a function that native banks can’t present. Consequently, the U.S., by means of the promotion of stablecoins, can entry international markets it has but to achieve, increasing its demand and consumer base, whereas additionally exporting greenback inflation to nations that wouldn’t have a direct affect on American politics — a protracted custom within the historical past of the USD. From a strategic perspective, this sounds preferrred for the USA, and it’s a easy extension of how the USD has labored for many years, simply on prime of recent monetary expertise.
The U.S. authorities understands this chance. In accordance with Chainalysis, “The stablecoin regulatory panorama has advanced considerably over the previous 12 months. Whereas the GENIUS Act within the U.S. (which legalized U.S. bond-backed stablecoins) has not but taken impact, its passage has pushed robust institutional curiosity.”
Why Stablecoins Ought to Trip On High of Bitcoin
The easiest way to ensure Bitcoin advantages from the elevation of the growing world out of mediocre fiat currencies is to ensure the greenback makes use of Bitcoin as its rails. Each greenback stablecoin pockets ought to be a Bitcoin pockets as effectively.
Critics of the Bitcoin greenback technique will say that it goes towards Bitcoin’s libertarian roots, that Bitcoin was supposed to interchange the greenback — not improve it or convey it into the twenty first century. Nevertheless, this concern is basically U.S.-centric. It’s simple to sentence the greenback once you receives a commission in {dollars} and your financial institution accounts are denominated in USD. It’s simple to critique a 2-8% greenback inflation fee (relying on the way you measure it) when that’s your native foreign money. In too many international locations outdoors of the U.S., 2-8% yearly inflation can be a blessing.
A big portion of the inhabitants of the world suffers from fiat currencies far worse than the greenback, with inflation charges within the low-to-high double digits and even triple digits, which is why stablecoins have already gained large adoption all through the third world. The growing world must get off the sinking ship first. The hope is that when they’re on a secure boat, they could begin trying round for tactics to improve to the Bitcoin yacht.
Sadly, most stablecoins aren’t on prime of Bitcoin right now, regardless of having began on Bitcoin, a technical actuality that may be a massive supply of friction and danger for customers. Nearly all of the stablecoin quantity right now runs on the Tron blockchain, which is a centralized community run on a handful of servers by Justin Solar, a Chinese language nationwide who could be simply focused by international states that detest the unfold of greenback stablecoins inside their borders.
Many of the blockchains on prime of which stablecoins transfer right now are additionally completely clear. Public addresses, which function account numbers for his or her customers, are publicly trackable, typically linked by native exchanges to the consumer’s private knowledge, and simply accessible by native governments. That’s a lever international nations can use to push again on the unfold of dollar-denominated stablecoins.
Bitcoin doesn’t have these infrastructure dangers. Not like Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and so forth., Bitcoin is very decentralized, with tens of hundreds of copies of itself all through the world and a sturdy peer-to-peer community used to transmit transactions in a means that may simply route round any bottlenecks or choke factors. Its proof-of-work layer offers a separation of powers that different proof-of-stake blockchains wouldn’t have. Michael Saylor, for instance, regardless of his large stack of bitcoins, 3% of the full provide, doesn’t have a direct vote on the consensus politics of the community. The identical can’t be stated for Vitalik, and the proof-of-stake consensus politics of Ethereum, or Justin Solar and Tron.
Moreover, the Lightning Community on prime of Bitcoin unlocks on the spot transaction settlement, which advantages from Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain safety. Whereas additionally offering customers vital privateness, as all Lightning Community transactions are off-chain by design, and don’t depart an everlasting footprint on its public blockchain. This elementary distinction in strategy to funds grants customers privateness from these they ship cash to, in addition to from third-party observers who don’t run Lightning wallets or high-liquidity Lightning nodes. This reduces the variety of menace actors that may invade consumer privateness from anybody who looks like trying on the blockchain, to a handful of extremely competent entrepreneurs and expertise corporations, at worst.
Customers may also run their very own Lightning nodes regionally and select how they connect with the community, and loads of individuals do, taking their privateness and safety into their very own fingers. None of those qualities could be seen within the blockchains that most individuals use for stablecoins right now.
Compliance insurance policies and even sanctions may nonetheless be utilized to greenback stablecoins, their governance anchored to Washington, with the identical analytics and smart-contract-based approaches used right now to cease legal use of stablecoins. There’s no elementary approach to decentralize one thing just like the greenback; in spite of everything, it’s centralized by design. Nevertheless, if a lot of the stablecoin worth have been to be transferred over the Lightning Community as a substitute, consumer privateness may be maintained, defending customers in growing nations from organized crime and even their native governments.
In the end, what customers care about is transaction charges — the price of transferring their cash round — which is why Tron has dominated the market to date. Nevertheless, with USDT coming on-line on prime of the Lightning Community, that would quickly change. Within the Bitcoin greenback world order, the Bitcoin community would grow to be the medium of change of the greenback, whereas the greenback would stay, for the foreseeable future, because the unit of account.
Can Bitcoin Survive This?
Critics of this technique are additionally involved in regards to the impression the Bitcoin greenback technique could have on Bitcoin itself. They surprise if placing the heavy incentives of the greenback on prime of Bitcoin can distort its underlying construction. The obvious means by which a superpower just like the U.S. authorities may wish to manipulate Bitcoin is to bend it into compliance with sanctions regimes, one thing they might theoretically do on the proof-of-work layer.
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, the sanctions regime has arguably already peaked, giving approach to the period of tariffs, which search to regulate the move of products relatively than the move of funds. This post-Trump, post-Ukraine conflict shift in U.S. international coverage technique truly relieves strain off Bitcoin.
Moreover, as main Western firms, reminiscent of BlackRock, and even the U.S. authorities, proceed to undertake bitcoin as long-term investments, or, within the phrases of President Donald J. Trump, a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” they too begin to align with the longer term success and survival of the Bitcoin community. Attacking Bitcoin’s censorship resistance qualities wouldn’t solely undermine their funding within the asset however would additionally weaken the community’s potential to ship stablecoins to the growing world.
The obvious compromise that Bitcoin must make within the Bitcoin greenback world order is to surrender the unit of account dimension of cash. That is unhealthy information for a lot of Bitcoiners, and rightfully so. Unit of account is the mecca of hyperbitcoinization, and lots of of its customers reside in that world right now, as they calculate their financial selections primarily based on the final word impression on the quantity of sats they maintain. Nevertheless, nothing can actually take that away from those that perceive Bitcoin as probably the most sound cash to have ever existed. Actually, the conviction of Bitcoin as a retailer of worth and a medium of change shall be strengthened with this Bitcoin greenback technique.
Sadly, after 16 years of makes an attempt to make bitcoin a unit of account as ubiquitous because the greenback, some are recognizing that within the medium time period, the greenback and stablecoins will probably fulfill that use case. Bitcoin funds won’t ever go away, and bitcoiner-led corporations will proceed to rise and may proceed to just accept bitcoin as fee to construct up their bitcoin treasuries — however stablecoins and dollar-denominated worth will probably dominate crypto commerce within the coming many years.
Nothing Stops This Practice
Because the world continues to adapt to the rising powers within the east and the emergence of the multipolar world order, the USA will probably must make tough and pivotal selections to keep away from a long-lasting monetary disaster. The nation may, in principle, decrease its spending, pivot, and restructure to be able to grow to be extra environment friendly and aggressive within the twenty first century. And the Trump administration is actually making an attempt to just do that, as seen by the tariff regime and different associated efforts, which try and convey again manufacturing of important industries into the USA and bolster its native expertise. Nevertheless, within the now legendary phrases of Lyn Alden, nothing stops this prepare.
Whereas there are a couple of miracles that maybe may clear up the USA’ monetary woes, such because the science-fiction-like automation of labor and intelligence, and even the Bitcoin greenback technique, in the end, even placing the greenback on the blockchain received’t change its destiny: to grow to be a collectible for historical past buffs, a rediscovered token of an historic empire match for a museum.
The greenback’s centralized design and dependence on American politics in the end doom the greenback as a foreign money, but when we’re sensible, its demise may not be seen for an additional 10, 50 and even 100 years. When the time does come, if historical past repeats, Bitcoin ought to be there because the rails, prepared to choose up the items and fulfill the prophecy of hyperbitcoinization.
BM Massive Reads are weekly, in-depth articles on some present matter related to Bitcoin and Bitcoiners. Opinions expressed are these of the authors and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal. You probably have a submission you assume suits the mannequin, be at liberty to achieve out at editor[at]bitcoinmagazine.com.
