A prominent former SEC official, John Reed Stark, has raised concerns about potential contagion risks associated with the increasing integration of digital assets into traditional banking. Stark, who previously headed the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, argues that relaxed oversight and expanded activities of banks in token services could introduce hidden interconnections between financial institutions. He echoes this sentiment by Lee Reiners, a Lecturer at Duke University, who points out the potential risks: ‘Relaxed oversight of token markets and the simultaneous expansion of traditional banks into token services may establish opaque linkages across financial institutions that have not been subjected to regulatory stress testing.’