Rob Kaplan, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas will step down from his position after more than six years. In a Monday announcement, the Dallas Fed said that Kaplan, its thirteenth president and CEO, would be retiring beginning Oct. 8. The 64-year-old cited recent attention to his “financial disclosure risks” in his decision to step down, likely referring to news outlet reports that he had traded stocks in companies including Apple, Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tesla in 2020 while casting his vote on United States monetary policy. The Dallas Fed president has …

The United States Federal Reserve is still evaluating the prospects of introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the country but says it has not yet decided on the matter. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Powell stated that the Federal Reserve was studying the merits of creating a digital dollar and has plans to issue a paper on the matter. “We are working proactively to issue a CBDC and if so, in what form,” Powell stated while fielding questions at the news conference, adding: “We think it is our obligation to do the work both on public …

A new bill introduced by United States Representative Don Beyer of Virginia has proposed a far-reaching regulatory and legal framework for digital assets across the board. Entitled "The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act of 2021," the bill touches on virtually all the important gray areas that continue to exist regarding cryptocurrencies in the U.S. context. One of its primary goals is to establish statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities, bringing the former under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the latter under that of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). …

The quest to understand the opportunities and challenges of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is underway in 81 countries, with five nations fully implementing a digital version of their currency, according to a new CBDC tracker from the Atlantic Council. The Caribbean region is home to all five CBDCs that are currently in use, with the Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, and Grenada all implementing digital cash systems. CBDCs are in their pilot stage in 14 other countries, including South Korea and Sweden, the tracker shows. Established in 1961, the Atlantic Council describes …

The Federal Reserve’s ongoing research into central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, has broadened to include stablecoins and whether they can be effectively regulated. In their paper, which was published in SSRN’s eLibrary on July 17, Gorton and Zhang argue that “privately produced monies” such as stablecoins are “not an effective medium of exchange because they are not always accepted at par and are subject to runs.” The authors then go on to propose solutions to address what they consider to be “systemic risks created by stablecoins.” After taking a deep dive into the history of private money, beginning with …

Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch has partnered with the ICHI platform to issue a new stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. In a Thursday announcement, 1inch said it planned to mint a stablecoin “with a blend” of its native 1INCH token and USD Coin (USDC) through ICHI’s Decentralized Monetary Authority, or DMA. The new one1INCH stablecoin — all issuers on ICHI begin with the prefix "one," referring to its Japanese namesake — is aimed at providing a medium of exchange to pay operating expenses, provide liquidity, and distribute liquidity rewards. “The one1INCH stablecoin can grow into an economic game changer,” says …

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the government body is moving forward with research to implement a central bank digital currency. In an announcement from the Fed today, Powell said the Federal Reserve Board would be issuing a discussion paper sometime this summer, calling for the U.S. public to comment “on issues related to payments, financial inclusion, data privacy, and information security.” While the Fed chair said crypto was not a “convenient way to make payments” given its volatility, he was seemingly more open to stablecoins and a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. “Our key focus is on whether …

Fortune 500 company Accenture has teamed up with Digital Dollar Foundation to conduct Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC, trials in the United States. Announced on Monday, May 3, the newly formed Digital Dollar Project will carry out five CBDC pilot programs over the next 12 months. The project’s objective is to generate data to inform U.S. policymakers on how to develop a domestic digital currency. The Digital Dollar Project will launch three pilot programs in the next two months, generating data on the functional, sociological, and business benefits of a digital greenback. Al Jazeera reports that former chair of …

A new ranking of global central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, places the Bahamas at the top of the leaderboard in terms of retail applications — offering an important glimpse in the race to issue government-backed cryptocurrencies. In its 2021 "CBDC global index," consulting firm PwC surveyed the level of central-bank maturity in deploying cryptocurrencies based on two factors: retail applications and interbank applications. Retail applications refer to CBDCs that can be held and transacted directly by individuals and companies in the form of digital cash. Interbank, or wholesale, CBDCs, meanwhile, are restricted to major financial institutions for settlement. “More …

Brian Brooks, former acting comptroller of the currency of the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has claimed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) have some backing, while the U.S. dollar may not have any. Brooks gave his remarks in a CNBC Squawk Box interview with Joseph Kernen to unpack recent Bitcoin-related remarks by the U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Earlier this week, Powell argued that cryptos like Bitcoin are “essentially a substitute for gold” but at the same time they are “not backed by anything.” CNBC host Kernen pointed out that gold has historically been seen …

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said 2021 will likely have the central bank engaging with the public and lawmakers regarding the digital dollar. In a House Financial Services Committee hearing today, Powell responded to questions from Rep. Patrick McHenry, who said the digital dollar would likely face national and economic security issues for the United States. Powell said there were many concerns surrounding the project and the Fed intended to reach out to the public. “This is going to be the year in which we engage with the public pretty actively, including some public events that we’re working on,” he …

Janet Yellen may be open to having United States regulators consider a digital currency, but she still seems to have strong concerns about Bitcoin (BTC). In an interview for The New York Times' DealBook DC Policy Project held on Monday, Yellen said it makes sense for the Federal Reserve to look into a digital dollar. Speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin, the treasury secretary said a digital dollar maintained by the Fed could result in "faster, safer and cheaper payments," but added there were "a lot of things to consider" before a possible rollout. She questioned how regulators would "manage money …