The Federal Reserve published the latest “Monetary Policy Report” on Friday, categorizing the stablecoin industry – particularly the algorithmic stablecoins – as a risk of financial instability. Meanwhile, it expressed concern regarding the concentration of fiat-backed stablecoins on Tether’s USDT and Binance’s BUSD. Fed’s Latest Take on Stablecoins Given the rapidly growing digital asset markets,...Read More
Raoul Pal – CEO of Global Macro Investor – predicted the bottom in the crypto markets will be in within the next five weeks, saying he may start buying heavily as early as next week. He compared the current bear market to the violent crypto plunge in 2014 while suggesting that the ongoing bloodbath could...Read More
The St. Louis Federal Reserve published a blog post with the ratio of eggs to Bitcoin in a bid to criticize the volatility in the latter but ended up being ridiculed for the example. Cracking Bitcoin-Volatility Case According to the post “Buying eggs with bitcoins – a look at currency-related price volatility,” the Eggs/BTC graph,...Read More
John Williams – President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York – believes the institution should closely monitor the transformations of the cryptocurrency industry and, if needed, make necessary updates on its financial policies. He also opined that stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have a better chance of succeeding in...Read More
In a testimony before the Committee on Financial Services, Brainard called for “clear regulatory guardrails” to provide consumer and investor protection, uphold financial stability, and ensure a level playing field for competition and innovation across the financial system amidst the turmoil in the crypto market. Call for a Digital Dollar In the wake of recent events...Read More
Ben Bernanke – former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve – does not believe Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies can succeed as an alternative money. He claims their prices are too volatile to serve as a practical means of exchange and lack the underlying use cases to serve as stores of value. Bitcoin is for Criminals,...Read More
The United States continues its exploration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the main processor for US securities said it is developing a prototype for studying how such an asset can work in reality. The main goal is to examine how real-time transactions through cash-like tokens can pass through in the clearing and...Read More
Jeremy Siegel – Finance Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania – said the Federal Reserve needs to tighten its interest rates fast. With inflation spinning rapidly out of control, he called on the central bank to protect the dollar from devaluation, and from a possible Bitcoin “take over”. Dollar in Danger,...Read More
Jerome Powell – Chairman of the Federal Reserve – recently testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee on the state of the economy, and future monetary policy. Given the various sanctions placed on Russia during its conflict with Ukraine, he said the conflict “underscores” the need for crypto regulation that he’s advocated for...Read More
A few months after introducing the first draft aiming to prohibit Fed officials from owning certain assets, the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee has updated the document to include cryptocurrencies. Reports emerged last year claiming that numerous Federal Reserve top employees traded stocks, bonds, and real estate securities in 2020, shortly before the central bank...Read More
According to recent figures, the U.S. added 467,000 new jobs in January alone, despite worries about Omicron leaving various businesses short-staffed. Bitcoin traded slightly lower following the reveal. A Surprisingly Strong Labor Market The recent employment figures were published in a report by the US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier today. While total...Read More
We saw the publishing of technical research and open-source code that could be the groundwork for digitizing the greenback. There were no definitive plans to develop a CBDC mentioned in the paper as any decision must pass Congress first, according to reports. On Feb. 3, executive vice president at the Boston Fed, Jim Cunha, said:...Read More
Jerome Powell – chairman of the Federal Reserve – appears to have reversed one of his previous positions on the relationship between CBDCs and stablecoins. Testifying in front of the US congress, he suggested that both could co-exist, without the former replacing the latter. Allowing Stablecoins and CBDCs. Powell discussed the possibility of a Federal...Read More
On Dec. 1, the outspoken Nayib Bukele responded to a Bloomberg report detailing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s comments on inflation. Interestingly, El Salvador’s president asked the Fed chief to stop printing so much money out of thin air. Inflation a Growing Concern A fresh round of economic anguish has been ignited by last week’s...Read More
In a CNBC interview over the week, a major hedge fund manager predicted that “massive inflation” will lead the Fed to hike interest rates six times by 2024. Crypto traders are keeping a close watch on the macro-financial environment as they wrap up another volatile month. Federated Hermes has over $600 billion in assets under...Read More
Better Markets, a non-profit independent organization promoting public interest in financial markets, has reported that it would welcome any action by the SEC investigating insider trading at the Fed. On Oct. 6, Dennis Kelleher, co-founder, and President of Better Markets stated that a thorough, independent investigation by the SEC is so important. He stated that...Read More
It’s been a very productive week in the cryptocurrency market, but it’s safe to say that most of it was due to the volatile price action during just one of the days – Friday, October 1st. Going back, last Friday, the BTC price was hovering around $43,500, and, in fact, it stayed there for quite...Read More
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, Jerome Powell, said today that the country is working on a publisher’s report on digital currencies. The Fed Chair said that the incoming report would focus on digital payments “broadly.” Per his words, this also includes stablecoins, crypto-assets, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). We’re...Read More
Coinbase executives continue to move among the big names in the financial landscape. This month, it was the turn of none other than U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. According to Powell’s working schedule for May, the head of the Fed had a face-to-face meeting with the head of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc....Read More
New York Federal Reserve Bank President – John Williams – opined that the rapid development of virtual assets challenges the central banks’ desire to launch their own CBDCs. He advised policymakers to consider how cryptocurrencies would work efficiently alongside physical cash. Crypto Raises Questions for Central Banks John Williams – the president and CEO of...Read More
Brett Heath – precious metal company Metalla Royalty & Streaming CEO – opined that crypto ”will lead the charge in the next financial crisis.” Furthermore, he compared the industry to the tech crash of the early 2000s alongside the mortgage collapse in 2008. Crypto Will Cause The Next Crash The head of Metalla Royalty &...Read More
Jim Bullard, President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, has dismissed the value proposition of Bitcoin (BTC) based on some of the oft-quoted advantages claimed by BTC proponents. Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, Bullard remarked that the Federal Reserve viewed Bitcoin as more of a rival to gold than an actual currency. According to Bullard,...Read More
U.S President Joe Biden’s administration is looking forward to fast-track its coronavirus relief plan with a third round of stimulus checks worth $1,400 for each U.S citizen. If the proposed plan is executed, it will be a $1.9 trillion bill, over and above the previous stimulus plans already in play. While these relief checks are...Read More
Donald Trump is no longer President of the United States. Democrat Joe Biden is the 46th President of the United States and Janet Yellen is the Treasury Secretary in his administration. Despite a change in government, the underlying problems in the economy remain the same. The question thus is – Does this change the trajectory...Read More
Some of Bitcoin’s narratives have become extremely popular over the past few months. Store of value, Digital Gold, etc. are some of them but recently, its characteristics as a hedge against inflation have taken new precedence. However, people fail to understand why Bitcoin has clarity in terms of inflation and the U.S dollar does not....Read More
Bitcoin has gathered more criticism than any other asset class in the past decade. However, one of the most popular and oldest arguments is that “Bitcoin could fail if it becomes a threat to national currencies it will simply get banned”. If you have heard this a bunch of times, let’s dive into why Bitcoin...Read More
When Bitcoin was launched back in 2009, experts believed that it was launched to tackle the global financial crisis. The banking crisis was at the heart of it, and Satoshi’s vision may have been to decentralize what we know as money. Despite regulatory clampdown in the first 7 to 8 years of its existence, Bitcoin,...Read More
Tyler Winklevoss, the co-founder of the US-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, believes that the US stimulus packages are a “code for buy Bitcoin.” The former business partner of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg commented on a speech by the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Image Source: CNN In it, Powell said that...Read More
US Fed Chair Powell believes that the United States should focus on getting right the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), rather than attempt to be first. While speaking on a panel hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Powell reassured that the US is “committed to carefully and thoughtfully evaluating the potential...Read More
Bitcoin is worth much more than what it is today. That’s not a rhetorical statement; in fact, it’s a practical one. If the metric you’re measuring Bitcoin against is potentially infinite, then to put a finite value of $10,600 on a cryptocurrency which has a fixed supply doesn’t make sense. Every fiat currency can be...Read More
