Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell spoke on March 7 in entrance of a Senate Banking, Housing and City Affairs Committee.
Throughout the listening to, he was questioned by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) about permissionless distributed ledgers and whether or not they had anyplace throughout the monetary system.
Powell stated:
“There are actual issues about permissionless public blockchains, and the reason being that they’ve been so prone to fraud, to cash laundering and all of these issues. I believe what you heard from the federal banking businesses in one in all their studies was that they might have a tendency to take a look at these as inconsistent with security and soundness.”
On stablecoins, Powell stated that with “applicable regulation,” they may merge with conventional banks.
“The place stablecoin exercise will get the identical regulation as comparable merchandise somewhere else, then there actually may very well be a spot for stablecoins in our monetary companies sector,” the Fed chair stated.
Lummis additionally pressed Powell on the necessity for digital asset regulation. She in contrast the US to different jurisdictions just like the UK, the EU, Switzerland and Singapore, all of which have moved within the final a number of years to create legislative frameworks for digital property, whereas the US has lagged.
“I do suppose it could be vital for us to have a workable authorized framework round digital actions,” Powell added. “I believe that’s vital and one thing Congress in precept, must do, as a result of we will’t actually try this.”
