The Wizard of Oz, written in 1900, can now be taken as being an antecedent to the story of US stablecoins. Not the yellow brick road but the road to US stablecoins: from redeemable gold to redeemable digital currencies. The evolution of the US dollar, from Civil War, era redeemable banknotes to fiat currency and now to USD stablecoins, reveals a recurring quest for trust in ‘money’. The Wizard of Oz serves as an allegory to this journey: gold standards, political illusion and public faith in monetary authority. The GENIUS Act of 2025 marks a key inflection point, restoring redeemability through regulated, asset-backed stablecoins. Similar to Dorothy’s journey, modern money seeks credibility not in spectacle, but in the transparent backing of ‘money’ in real assets and sound governance.

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Europe has entered its first post-MiCA implementation phase whilst Washington pushes to finalise the CLARITY Act as part of a broader bid to strengthen US leadership in digital assets. With the regulatory foundations solidifying, the more pressing question is how institutions should rethink their stablecoin strategy.

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MiCAR gave Europe a common regulatory framework for crypto-assets but implementation has exposed continuing challenges around licensing, token classification, whitepapers, legacy assets and regulatory consistency. The European Commission’s 2026 review reflects this evolving landscape whilst gaps remain around DeFi, staking, lending, tokenised deposits and cross-border harmonisation. MiCAR’s significance may therefore lie less in being a finished rulebook than in providing a foundation that can evolve as digital-asset markets mature and scale.

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