Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets and industry advisory services, Sandy Kaul, has warned that the recent regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency market could mark the start of the decline of traditional banking.

Kaul pointed to the passage of the Genius Act and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) move to allow stablecoins to be used as collateral for listed derivative trades. 

This decision effectively ushers stablecoins into the mainstream financial system, enabling them to play a direct role in transactions previously limited to traditional assets, she said in an interview with David Lin published on October 1. 

“We had the passage of the Genius Act. The CFTC just came out and recommended being able to use stablecoins as collateral on listed derivative trades. This is really bringing a crypto instrument into the mainstream. <…> in retrospect, this is going to have be seen as the beginning of the end of the traditional financial ecosystem,” she said. 

Reduced dependence on account systems 

The expert explained that each dollar shifting from banks to stablecoins circulates in a regulated, consumer-protected peer-to-peer ecosystem, reducing dependence on traditional account-based systems.

According to Kaul, this marks a turning point where blockchain and crypto rails could become the backbone of global finance. 

By enabling stable, regulated cash transactions in the digital space, institutional investors who previously avoided crypto may now be drawn in. 

The transition, she argued, will eventually put the existing financial infrastructure to shame, accelerating the migration from banks to blockchain-based systems.

Kaul concluded that the combination of regulatory recognition and technological capability means the Genius Act will be remembered as the catalyst that eliminated the banking sector.

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