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The head of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has spoken out quite sharply against the plans of large banks to issue their own stablecoins. His words sounded like a warning about the impending conflict between the familiar, state-regulated financial system and the new digital world, where the rules are still being formed. Bailey believes that stablecoins are not just a technological novelty, but a serious threat to national currencies and financial stability.

In his opinion, stablecoins are more of a "Trojan horse" that carries risks for the entire system, rather than just the next step in the development of money. If banks start using them massively, it could undermine confidence in the financial system, disrupt its operation, and ultimately deprive governments of control over their currencies. People who use stablecoins for settlements and savings, in fact, consider them "real" money, but without the necessary guarantees and controls, which creates a false sense of security.

Interestingly, for all his criticism of private cryptocurrencies, Bailey doesn't see much point in public digital currencies either, at least for now. Instead of developing a CBDC, he suggests central banks focus on developing tokenized deposits. This technology, in his opinion, should link the traditional banking system and the blockchain, while maintaining control over the major market players.

Bailey did not ignore bitcoin either. His opinion about it remains the same: bitcoin does not perform the functions of money, its value is speculation, and investing in it is like participating in a lottery with high risks. He has said before that bitcoin is an inefficient payment instrument that has little penetration into the real financial sector.

In general, the Bank of England, under Bailey's leadership, takes a cautious, even conservative stance on financial innovation. The regulator makes it clear that experiments with private digital money are not the business of banks, but of the market, and then under strict control. He sees the future not in a radical replacement of the existing system, but in its gradual modernization through tokenization, where central banks will control the monetary space.