America’s new law on stablecoins is so good, “They named it after me,” joked President Donald Trump as he signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act on July 18th. While the administration and the crypto industry celebrate the dawn of a golden age, the mood across the Atlantic is darker. Stablecoins, tokens backed by conventional assets, are seen as scammy, deeply destabilising—or both. Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has warned commercial banks against issuing their own coins. Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank (ecb), cautions that stablecoins could become private money that risks one day dislodging central banks.