Paul Krugman, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, stated in a blog post that "stablecoins have no obvious useful function" and believed that their only economic reason is to "facilitate criminal activities" such as money laundering and extortion. He compared stablecoin issuers to 19th century "pre-war banks," calling them a new type of "shadow bank" that could evade regulation and trigger risks similar to the 2008 financial crisis.

Nic Carter, co-founder of Coin Metrics, responded on social media, calling Krugman's views on stablecoins "extremely wrong" and pointing out that over 100 million stablecoin users worldwide prove their practical use. Paul Fusaro, President of Bitwise Asset Management, also supports Carter's viewpoint.