Former Lloyds digital banking COO questions stablecoins' lasting edge

An opinion column, not a report

So far, the piece is an argument rather than a report of new findings. CoinDesk published it on 10 November 2026, and its author is Alessandro Hatami, the founder of Pacemakers and a former chief operating officer of digital banking at Lloyds Banking Group.

Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value, usually by tracking a fiat currency such as the dollar. They are used to move money between trading venues and, increasingly, for payments. The column's premise, as the excerpt sets it out, is that crypto firms and banks are converging, and that this convergence makes the stablecoin question fair to ask.

The excerpt attributes this line to Hatami: it is fair to ask what lasting advantage stablecoins have. The column does not, in the material available, set out which banks or crypto firms it has in mind.

What the excerpt leaves open

The excerpt does not state the column's conclusion, cite figures, or name the companies it discusses. It presents the piece as the author's argument, and the author's role is given as a former bank executive and current founder of a firm called Pacemakers.

No stablecoin issuer, bank or regulator is quoted in the material available, and none is described as responding to the column. Whether the column answers its own question, and how issuers or banks react, is not in the excerpt.