Stablecoins as emergency circuit breakers

Major stablecoin issuers can and did act as fast‑moving circuit breakers by freezing funds to blunt a multi‑billion dollar drain from an exchange wallet. That privileged control can prevent immediate runs but concentrates operational power in a few private firms and raises questions about market dependency and legal authority. — This reframes stablecoins not just as price‑pegs but as de facto market‑infrastructure gatekeepers, affecting regulation, custody models, and systemic risk policies.