PANews reported on October 30th, citing Cointelegraph, that Coinbase's head of policy, Faryar Shirzad, stated that concerns about cryptocurrency stablecoins harming US banks by eroding bank deposits are unfounded and fail to consider the real-world uses of these tokens. Most stablecoin demand comes from outside the US, expanding the dollar's global dominance rather than competing with US banks. Emerging markets use dollar-denominated stablecoins to hedge against currency devaluation risks, and for underserved populations, these tokens are "a practical way to access dollars." Approximately two-thirds of stablecoin transactions occur on decentralized finance (DeFi) or blockchain platforms, which, in this sense, are transaction infrastructures for a new financial layer operating parallel to but primarily outside the US domestic banking system. Viewing stablecoins as a threat is a misinterpretation of the current situation. Concerns that community banks will be severely impacted by the widespread use of stablecoins are also unconvincing; typical stablecoin users "are not the same as typical community bank customers," and there is virtually no overlap between community banks and stablecoin holders. Banks "can use stablecoins to improve services."