St. Louis Fed Chief James Bullard reportedly views cryptocurrencies as part of a global currency competition that is ultimately unhealthy. Bullard presented his views at the Central Bank Research Association 2019 annual meeting in a talk entitled “Public and Private Currency Competition.” Presentation slides have subsequently appeared on the official Twitter account for The St. Louis Fed on July 19. In Bullard’s slides, he noted that there is historical precedent for certain key features of cryptocurrency. One of his bullet points reads: “Global currency competition is nothing new, nor is electronic delivery of value.” He also presented that “public and …

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 before the Senate Banking Committee on July 11, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave his analysis of whether a cryptocurrency system with global prevalence could diminish — or even go so far as to remove the need for — so-called anchor currencies. With the U.S. dollar de facto the world’s dominant reserve currency, Powell acknowledged the possibility of a preeminent cryptocurrency redrawing the current financial landscape — yet noted that as of yet, this has stopped …

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there needs to be broad satisfaction with the way Facebook is handling regulatory concerns regarding its forthcoming stablecoin Libra. Powell gave his comments in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on July 10. Rep. Steve Stivers asked Powell during the meeting, “if Facebook can’t sufficiently answer your questions about anti-money laundering, Know Your Customer, what would your message be to the banks that provide banking to Facebook, and what would your advice to Facebook be?” Powell replied: “ … I just think it cannot go forward without there being broad satisfaction with …

The potential interest rate cut by the United States central bank is apparently one of the reasons for the recent surge of bitcoin (BTC), Deutsche Bank exec Jim Reid said in an interview with CNBC on June 26. Reid, the head of global fundamental credit strategy at Deutsche Bank, stated: “if central banks are gonna be this aggressive, then alternative currencies do start to become a bit more attractive." Reid referenced a recent speech by Fed’s chairman Jerome Powell, who said yesterday that the central bank is considering a cut of interest rates amidst the current economic uncertainty and inflation …

The United States Federal Reserve (the Fed) is considering the inclusion of this year’s Bitcoin (BTC) market collapse as one of the “salient risks” to be taken into account for its supervisory stress tests. The prospective amendment was revealed as part of a policy statement published on the official federal government daily journal, The Federal Register, on Feb. 28. The Fed’s annual supervisory stress tests provide the framework for covered companies to conduct their internal stress tests. These have been mandatory pursuant to the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act (effective 2010), which was introduced as a direct response to …

Bitcoin is “anything but” a useful store of value, former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen stated in a speech Monday, Canadian financial news outlet Kitco reported Oct. 29. Speaking during an interview at the 2018 Canada FinTech Forum in Montreal, Yellen – who rose to fame in the cryptocurrency community last year as the target of the now infamous ‘Buy Bitcoin’ session at a House Financial Services Committee meeting – doubled down on her previous criticism of the asset. “It has long been thought that for something to be a useful currency, it needs to be a stable source …

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will now be tracking the prices of four cryptocurrencies on their research database, according to a June 19 post on the bank’s website. The database, called the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), will now include the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) from as early as 2014 to the present. The prices will be updated daily with data obtained from U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has often been in the news for their research and statements about cryptocurrencies and blockchain. …

The former Chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said that she thinks the Federal Reserve (Fed) needs to seriously consider issuing a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) in a June 8 op-ed published on Yahoo! Finance. In her op-ed, the former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair noted that “the past 10 years are proof positive that current monetary tools are woefully inadequate to stimulate broad-based economic growth,” adding: “The super rich have gotten a lot richer, while the middle class has struggled.” Bair first crosses out cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as a way to improve current monetary tools, …

Major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase spoke to regulators about obtaining a federal banking charter, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) May 18. Citing “a person familiar with the matter”, the WSJ reports that Coinbase spoke to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) at the beginning of 2018 both about a bank charter and about their business model. A spokesperson for Coinbase declined to comment on the meeting to the WSJ, but added that the company is “committed to working closely with state and federal regulators to ensure we are properly …

Ben Bernanke, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, made his views against Bitcoin clear at a conference organized by Ripple in Toronto. Undermining the Government not a Recipe For Success Echoing the views of J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Bernanke feels that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, which puts it outside government control, will trigger its downfall. Speaking at Swell, a three day conference organized by Ripple in Toronto, Bernanke said: “Bitcoin is an attempt to replace fiat currency and evade regulation and government intervention. I don’t think that’s going to be a success.” He attributed the current run …