The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, recently made a statement that highlights a core issue in the digital currency ecosystem.

His view is straightforward: in the future, digital currencies of commercial banks and central bank digital currencies will become the two main pillars of the monetary system. These two will jointly maintain the operation of the entire system, while stablecoins? They are just a supporting role.

Why does he say this? Panetta believes that the key to stablecoins lies in — their stability must be anchored to fiat currency. This inherent dependency limits the space for stablecoins to operate independently within the financial system. In other words, stablecoins are essentially supplementary to fiat currency, not substitutes.

In contrast, once central bank digital currencies and commercial bank currencies are fully digitalized, they can form a complementary rather than adversarial relationship, truly supporting the stable operation of the modern monetary system. This judgment also reflects the latest thinking of global central banks on the digital currency ecosystem — technological upgrades are a means, but the essential properties of money and the stability of the financial system are the ultimate goals.