How much more ground will authorities surrender before offering competing products, or introducing regulation to clip the wings of the private sector? The answer has broad implications both for the payment industry and beyond. Funds parked with Tether have grown by 230% this year, according to Fitch Ratings, which reckons that on current trends, stablecoins could become a bigger holder of short-term U.S. commercial paper than money market mutual funds in two or three years. While Diem, the upcoming, Facebook-backed stablecoin, has said that it will invest predominantly in government securities, alternative allocation strategies are possible and, “depending on its scale, the operator may become an important participant in other short-term markets,” Fitch says.