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The Emirates News Agency reported that stablecoins, digital payments and tokenisation are changing the future of finance according to the International Monetary Fund. The assessment draws on multiple IMF papers released over the past year that examine technological developments across advanced and emerging economies. An IMF note published in July 2026 described tokenization as a structural transformation of financial architecture that shifts risk from institutions to infrastructure and requires rigorous governance of code and data. The analysis stressed the importance of anchoring digital finance in public trust to avoid amplifying instability through speed and fragmentation.
IMF working papers have assessed market expectations around stablecoins playing a larger role in payments. A March 2026 IMF working paper found that legislation supporting stablecoins in the United States reduced the market value of listed incumbent payment firms by 18 percent or about 300 billion dollars. The decline proved larger for firms focused on cross-border payments and smaller for those protected by network effects or already offering crypto services. Researchers accounted for anticipation effects using prediction markets to arrive at the overall valuation impact.
Stablecoin issuance has doubled over the past two years according to an IMF report from December 2025. The fund placed the market capitalization of stablecoins near 300 billion U.S. dollars with trading volumes reaching 23 trillion dollars in 2024 and Asia accounting for the highest activity. The December 2025 report noted that while crypto trades remain the primary use case stablecoins have expanded into cross-border payments and remittances with potential for broader domestic adoption under supportive regulatory conditions.
Tokenisation represents assets on blockchain-based ledgers according to the IMF’s July 2026 note on emerging trends. The process enables atomic settlement continuous liquidity management and embedded compliance within regulated financial institutions including banks and asset managers. The IMF note argued that permissioned shared ledgers and programmable assets alter the nature of settlement liquidity and systemic risk in ways that extend beyond marginal efficiency improvements. Long-term viability hinges on clear policy frameworks legal certainty and international coordination the assessment found.
Analysts cited in IMF publications project that asset tokenization could reach 16 trillion dollars by 2030 or roughly 10 percent of global GDP. Projects such as mBridge connect central banks from China Hong Kong Thailand and the United Arab Emirates on shared distributed ledger platforms for wholesale central bank digital currency transactions. Additional initiatives like Project Guardian coordinated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore explore tokenized assets and open digital infrastructure to improve liquidity and reduce settlement risk in foreign exchange markets.
The IMF has outlined policy questions raised by tokenized deposits stablecoins and related monetary liabilities. Regulatory divergence across jurisdictions creates risks of arbitrage while uneven oversight may leave gaps in addressing currency substitution and fiscal implications in developing economies. The fund has recommended legal clarity robust regulation adherence to financial integrity standards and stronger global cooperation to balance innovation with financial stability. Central banks continue to examine how these technologies interact with public money and traditional payment systems.
