• digital dollar private sector powell
    Cryptocurrencies,  Politics,  Regulation,  Technology

    Building digital dollar requires private sector’s help: Fed Chairman

    Jerome Powell told an international financial conference that ‘the private sector has the experience and expertise’ needed to help build digital currencies

    The chairman of the Federal Reserve said today that the U.S. government will have to work with private firms to improve the way money is moved around the world. Speaking via video at a Bank for International Settlement (BIS) conference in Basel, Switzerland on March 18, Jerome Powell acknowledged that the current system of cross-border payments needs to be improved and digitalized. He said: “The COVID crisis as brought into even sharper focus the need to address the limitations of our current arrangements for cross-border payments.” It has, he said, “shined a light on the less efficient areas of our current payment system and accelerated the desire for improvement and digitalization.” A key…

  • Powell Digital dollar high priority
    Cryptocurrencies,  Politics,  Regulation

    Fed’s Powell: 2021 ‘an important year’ for digital dollar

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said 2021 will be a key year for the U.S. as it decides whether to create a digital currency, and what it would look like

    Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 24, Powell said 2021 “is going to be the year that we engage with the public pretty actively” on the digital dollar project. He added that there are still significant technical challenges to be met, as well as major policy decisions to be made, before the U.S. decides to create a digital dollar.

  • Bitcoin,  Regulation

    U.S. will ‘squash’ Bitcoin during crisis: ‘The Big Short’ investor Burry

    Forecasting an inflationary crisis, the investor who called the 2008 mortgage crisis predicts governments won’t put up with currency competition in bad times

    “I don’t hate $BTC," Burry said on Twitter. "However, in my view, the long term future is tenuous for decentralized crypto in a world of legally violent, heartless centralized governments with #lifeblood interests in monopolies on currencies."

  • digital dollar first-mover advantage
    People,  Regulation,  Technology

    Fed Chair: Digital dollar will have a ‘first-mover advantage’ whenever it comes

    China may be far ahead but Jerome Powell said the U.S. dollar’s role of as the world’s reserve currency gives it a lead in any central bank digital currency race

    At the Federal Reserve "we actually think we need to get this right, and we don't feel an urge or need to be first,” Powell said of a digital dollar. "We’re going to look at it very, very carefully and we’re investing heavily in understanding the technology and analyzing the policy questions—the many policy questions.”