William Quigley Predicts Shift to Tokenized Fiat at FT Crypto Summit: Tether’s Role in Future Financial Innovations

William Quigley Predicts Shift to Tokenized Fiat at FT Crypto Summit: Tether’s Role in Future Financial Innovations

Stablecoins like Tether currently do not offer interest yields, but this could change with the advent of tokenized fiat, according to Tether’s co-founder William Quigley. At the FT Crypto and Digital Assets Summit on May 9, Quigley highlighted that tokenizing fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar could be the most significant innovation since fiat itself was invented. He predicted a shift towards tokenized currencies within the next decade and lauded the benefits of this technological advancement.

Quigley articulated that tokenizing fiat not only retains all the benefits of traditional fiat but also enhances them. He posed the question of why traditional checking accounts do not pay interest, noting that while banks offer electronic banking services, the prospect of earning interest on tokenized or stablecoins like Tether could become a reality in the future.

According to Quigley, many people are content with the current setup where their U.S. dollar deposits do not yield interest because they value the banking services they receive, such as ATM access and ACH payments, essentially paying for these conveniences by forgoing interest.

The conversation also covered Quigley’s journey into the crypto world and the founding of Tether, now the largest stablecoin by market cap and the most traded cryptocurrency. He shared that his early interest in gaming, where the concept of trading in-game items was burgeoning in the late ’90s, played a crucial role.

The inefficiencies of the barter system led his partner to conceptualize a digital escrow service, paving the way for modern digital transactions and influencing the creation of Tether. Quigley also mentioned he was one of the initial institutional investors in PayPal, underscoring his longstanding involvement in digital payment innovations.

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