Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer has introduced legislation in the United States House of Representatives that could limit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a Feb. 22 announcement, Representative Emmer said he had introduced the ‘CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act’ in an apparent effort to protect Americans’ right to financial privacy. According to the Minnesota lawmaker, the bill could prohibit the Fed from issuing a digital dollar “directly to anyone”, bar the central bank from implementing monetary policy based on a CBDC, and require transparency for projects related to a digital dollar. “Any digital version …

Project Hamilton, the research project of the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced its conclusion in the runup to Christmas. The two-year project looked at the technical aspects of a hypothetical United States digital dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC). “Project Hamilton took critical early steps toward a deeper understanding of how money might work better for all,” Boston Fed executive vice president Jim Cunha said in a statement announcing the conclusion of the project. In February, the technologically “agnostic” project released a white paper and open-source research software called OpenCBDC in …

The Digital Dollar Project (DDP) and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) released the results of their Security Settlement Pilot project Nov. 30. The project tested a simulated digital U.S. dollar in transactions with tokenized securities on a blockchain network under real-world conditions. The project was designed “to better understand the implications of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on post-trade settlement,” especially on DvP (delivery versus payment) settlements, sometimes called atomic settlements, that ensure securities transfers only take place simultaneously or nearly simultaneously with payment. No U.S. CBDC has been developed or even authorized yet. DTCC managing …

USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by the U.S.-based Circle Financials Ltd, is taking the lead over its top rival, Tether (USDT), when it comes to institutional adoption, according to on-chain data. USDC daily transfer volumes are higher The market capitalization of USDC tokens in circulation comes to be around $44 billion versus USDT's $65.42 billion. However, USDC's daily transfer value on the Ethereum blockchain has been consistently higher than USDT throughout 2022, data from Glassnode shows. For instance, as of Nov. 22, the USDC daily transfer was around $14 billion compared to USDT's $5 billion. In other words, USDC …

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center, or NYIC, announced that it would be launching a 12-week proof-of-concept pilot for a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a Nov. 15 announcement, the New York Fed said the program would explore the feasibility of an “interoperable network of central bank wholesale digital money and commercial bank digital money operating on a shared multi-entity distributed ledger” on a regulated liability network. Banking giants including BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo will be participating in the pilot by issuing tokens and …

A note published by the United States Federal Reserve at a recently held conference found a majority of exports believe a U.S. dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) would not drastically change the global currency ecosystem. Panelists at the conference also agreed that CBDC development outside of the U.S. doesn’t threaten the status of the dollar, but the development of cryptocurrencies could alter the role of the dollar globally, with some saying stablecoins could even boost the U.S. dollar's role as the global dominant reserve currency. The assessments came from expert panelists at a June 16 and 17 conference hosted …

Connecticut House of Representatives member Jim Himes has released a proposal aiming to start a dialogue on the United States potentially launching a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a white paper released on Wednesday, Himes urged Congress to begin exploring the rollout of a digital dollar issued by the Federal Reserve to prevent the government from falling behind in innovations in financial technology. According to the U.S. lawmaker, a CBDC “should not be thought of as replacing legacy payment systems and currencies but as an additional alternative for consumers and businesses.” The white paper laid out a proposal …

The emergence of forty-year high inflation readings and the increasingly dire-looking global economy has prompted many financial analysts to recommend investing in gold to protect against volatility and a possible decline in the value of the United States dollar. For years, crypto traders have referred to Bitcoin (BTC) as “digital gold,” but is it actually a better investment than gold? Let’s take a look at some of the conventional arguments investors cite when praising gold as an investment and why Bitcoin might be an even better long-term option. Value retention One of the most common reasons to buy both gold …

Lawmakers in the United States are moving to protect the country from the potential undesirable impacts of the global adoption of China’s national digital currency. Three Republican senators, Tom Cotton, Mike Braun and Marco Rubio, introduced a bill on Wednesday, aiming to limit the use of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the United States. The bill is referred to as “Defending Americans from Authoritarian Digital Currencies Act” and proposes to prohibit the use of China’s digital currency payment system, e-CNY, for U.S. app stores and other purposes. The term “app store” covers all publicly accessible websites, software apps …

The United States continues to be a global leader in embracing the cryptocurrency industry thanks to the work of Sen. Patrick Toomey, with the White House being at the forefront of crypto regulation. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — and it included some new legislation that would impact the crypto sector. And more recently, the U.S. president announced a “whole-of-government” approach to regulating cryptocurrency in an across-the-board executive order directing multiple government agencies to answer specific questions on cryptocurrencies. The U.S. for the last year has clearly been seeking to help make the …

Former United States Federal Reserve vice-chair for supervision Randal Quarles discussed central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the chances of the U.S. adopting such technology in an interview on the “Banking With Interest” podcast Tuesday. Quarles, who is known for his opposition to a CBDC, expressed his skepticism about the so-called digital dollar and predicted the U.S. will not introduce it. Quarles, who served at the Fed from 2017 to 2021, said a close analysis of CBDCs would show that their advantages are “extremely marginal, if they exist at all.” He did not see the potential for CBDCs in promoting …

Mishi Choudhary, the legal director of the Software Freedom Law Center, supported the efforts of some United States lawmakers to develop an electronic version of the U.S. dollar. In written testimony for a Thursday hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on digital wallets, Choudhary said the United States needed “a currency or electronic token that is equivalent in functionality to cash, offers all of its benefits including anonymity, privacy, autonomy, no transaction fee and addresses all of its flaws.” Her description suggested a token with many of the benefits of a central bank digital currency and cryptocurrencies but without …