Adrian Wall urges clearer stablecoin rules at Harvard

Adrian Wall, managing director of the Digital Sovereignty Alliance, urged clearer regulatory frameworks for stablecoins during an April 17 panel at Harvard Law School’s Blockchain & Fintech Conference in Cambridge. The DSA participated in the event as a Gold sponsor.

The panel, titled “Stablecoins and the Future of Global Payments,” included Michael Grazio, executive vice president and general counsel at Mastercard; Sarah Wilson, general counsel and corporate secretary at Circle; and Nick Gersh, senior regulatory counsel at Paxos. The session was moderated by Howell Jackson, the James S. Reid Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Wall argued that stablecoins function as a new payment rail rather than only a financial product and that existing policy frameworks lag behind how the instruments are being used. He said resilience and governance should be prioritized over relying on traditional deposit insurance and cautioned that adding yield to a digital dollar creates additional regulatory questions. Wall argued: “The focus is no longer whether stablecoins matter, but how to build transparent, durable systems around them, and who governs the rails.”

Panelists discussed practical and legal issues as stablecoins move into mainstream finance, including consumer protection, financial stability and market integrity. Speakers also addressed litigation trends, the tokenization of real-world assets and cybersecurity risks tied to digital finance.

Regulators and market participants are evaluating ways to integrate stablecoins into existing financial infrastructure while addressing those risks. Several participants called for greater coordination between public officials and private firms and for clear, consistent rules that reflect current deployments of digital assets.

The Digital Sovereignty Alliance said it will continue working with policymakers, academic institutions and market participants to support development of regulatory frameworks for digital finance. The DSA describes itself as a nonprofit social welfare organization that conducts research and education and advocates public policies related to decentralized technologies, blockchain, cryptocurrency, Web3 and artificial intelligence.