Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair.

When Circle, the world’s second-largest dollar stablecoin company, floated its shares at the start of June, the reaction was euphoric. By June 27, Circle’s stock had briefly touched $299 before settling near $183 – a staggering sixfold rise that left even some of its underwriters questioning the valuation. Although bullish investors hailed it as validation of a maturing crypto-financial ecosystem—stablecoins are a cryptocurrency pegged to a currency like the dollar or a commodity like gold—skeptics warned of speculative froth reminiscent of past fintech bubbles.

This surge, however, is more than just a triumph of corporate ambition. It crystallizes a deeper paradox: in an era when the supremacy of the U.S. dollar is increasingly scrutinized, could dollar-backed stablecoins be the digital scaffolding that fortifies its global reign, or the spark that accelerates its decline? Stablecoins, far from fringe techno-utopian tools, are becoming the infrastructure for a new era of soft power projection.

For now, the numbers tell a story of consolidation rather than retreat. Dollar-pegged stablecoins—digital tokens designed to hold a one-to-one value with the U.S. dollar—command over 95 percent of the global stablecoin market. This is not merely a technical curiosity. It is an echo of the dollar’s broader monetary hegemony, propped up by a regulatory climate in Washington that has historically chosen leniency over strict policing.

In June, the Senate passed the so-called GENIUS Act, the first federal framework designed to shepherd the unruly stablecoin herd into a fenced pasture. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, armed with sweeping powers under this legislation, did not mince words: the U.S. stablecoin market could balloon nearly eightfold to more than $2 trillion within a few years. At a Senate hearing last month, Bessent insisted that the proliferation of stablecoins would “anchor demand for U.S. Treasuries” and “entrench........

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