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Source: Fed Chairman: \u2018No One Uses It\u2019 \u2014 Bitcoin a Speculative Asset Like Gold<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve has said that a globally adopted cryptocurrency system could conceivably remove the need for reserve currencies.<\/p>\n Testifying<\/a>\u00a0before the Senate Banking Committee on July 11, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave his analysis of whether a cryptocurrency system with global prevalence could diminish \u2014 or even go so far as to remove the need for \u2014 so-called anchor currencies.<\/p>\n With the U.S. dollar de facto the world\u2019s dominant reserve currency, Powell acknowledged the possibility of a preeminent cryptocurrency redrawing the current financial landscape \u2014 yet noted that as of yet, this has stopped short of becoming a reality. The Fed chairman said:<\/p>\n \u201cI think things like that [the obsolescence of today\u2019s reserve currencies] are possible but we really [\u2026] haven\u2019t seen widespread adoption. Bitcoin is a good example, almost no one uses it for payments […] it\u2019s a speculative store of value like gold.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Powell\u2019s comparison is noteworthy given the Federal Reserve Bank of New York\u2019s role as a custodian for the gold held by entities such as the U.S. and foreign governments, other central banks, and official international organizations.<\/p>\n Powell acknowledged that the prospect of cryptocurrencies coming to replace reserve currencies has been implied since their inception and that its realization could see the global financial system \u2014 and specifically the Federal Reserve System \u2014 profoundly transformed. He noted:<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have been talking about this since cryptocurrencies emerged, but we haven\u2019t seen it. That\u2019s not to say we won\u2019t \u2014 and if we do, then yes, you could see a return to an era in the United States where we had many different currencies, in the so-called national banking era.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As\u00a0reported<\/a>, Powell had testified before the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week and acknowledged that the impact of Facebook\u2019s forthcoming stablecoin Libra could be of a \u201cpotentially systemic scale\u201d for the global financial and regulatory landscape.<\/p>\n In China, central banking veterans have\u00a0characterized<\/a>\u00a0the widespread anticipation of Libra as being \u201cinseparable from the global dollarization trend,\u201d and stressed that Beijing should respond with precautions and rigorous policy research to seek to maintain a strong monetary status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Fed Chairman: \u2018No One Uses It\u2019 \u2014 Bitcoin a Speculative Asset Like Gold The Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve has said that a globally adopted cryptocurrency system could conceivably remove the need for reserve currencies. Testifying\u00a0before the Senate Banking Committee on July 11, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave his analysis of whether … Continue reading Fed Chairman: \u2018No One Uses It\u2019 \u2014 Bitcoin a Speculative Asset Like Gold<\/span> \n