U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pointing to the dollar’s role in foreign-exchange markets and the growth of dollar-pegged stablecoins as evidence of continued U.S. financial influence, as Treasury yields and questions around government debt add pressure to the broader debate over the dollar’s position.
In a post on X, Bessent highlighted data showing the U.S. dollar remains on one side of 89.2% of foreign-exchange transactions and emphasized that most stablecoins are pegged to the dollar. He also cited record median household income, a low official poverty rate, continued employment growth and the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s 5.1% annualized estimate for third-quarter GDP.
Bessent’s comments came as the 10-year Treasury yield reached around 5%, increasing attention on the cost of U.S. government borrowing and the functioning of the Treasury market. He has defended Treasury buybacks as a tool for improving liquidity and managing the maturity structure rather than an effort to directly control yields. Reuters reported that Bessent described recent Treasury auctions as highly successful despite the rise in the 10-year yield.
Stablecoins are central to Bessent’s argument because their dollar denomination can extend the use of U.S. currency into blockchain-based payment infrastructure. The Bank for International Settlements, however, has raised separate concerns about stablecoins as large-scale payment instruments, including questions around monetary sovereignty, bank funding and interoperability.
Bessent also cited Saudi Arabia’s departure from the mBridge cross-border digital-currency project as supportive of the dollar’s position. Saudi Arabia’s central bank said its participation ended after completing a planned proof of concept in May 2025. The project itself continues with other participating jurisdictions, meaning the Saudi exit is a specific development rather than evidence that the broader initiative has ended.
The broader market issue is therefore not simply whether the dollar remains dominant today, but how traditional dollar infrastructure interacts with emerging blockchain-based payment systems. Stablecoins could extend dollar-denominated transactions into digital markets, while tokenized deposits and central-bank digital-currency projects are developing alternative forms of blockchain-based settlement.
The next focus will be whether stablecoin adoption continues to expand the dollar’s reach in digital payments, while Treasury yields, fiscal financing conditions and competing payment infrastructures provide additional signals about the durability of dollar dominance.
