Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies reminiscent of the finance of the Wild West era. They operate according to principles totally opposed to the rest of the crypto system.

Stablecoins and especially the most important of them, Tether, are booming. With $60 billion in circulation, the latter is in third place in the cryptocurrency market, behind bitcoin and ethereum. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies with a unit parity with the dollar, or with another traditional currency, whose value is based on trust in their issuer.
Stablecoins have also become a central part of the financial infrastructure of cryptocurrencies. According to data provider Crypto Compare, there is more trading between tether and bitcoin than between bitcoin and all fiat currencies. It should be noted that they are the epitome of "free banking", the poorly regulated system marked by numerous frauds, which had many small issuers of dollar banknotes and dominated American finance until the intervention of the government after the Civil War.