Digital Currencies

C. Boyden Gray Senior Fellow and GeoEconomics Center Deputy Director Julia Friedlander testifies to the House Committee on Financial Services regarding central bank digital currencies.

Cryptocurrency regulation currently ranges around the world from nonexistent or partial regulations to prohibitions. Here are the key areas to focus on to build better policy.

There are numerous debates raging about whether Bitcoin is good, bad, or ugly. But the sweeping suggestion to outlaw Bitcoin raises troubling questions about Americans’ bedrock freedoms.

As momentum grows for the development of CBDCs many policy questions remain unanswered. For insights into how CBDCs may develop, it will be important to watch where the current leaders, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the European Central Bank (ECB), converge and diverge.

The Federal Reserve worries about being too hasty in introducing a digital dollar, given the stakes as the world’s reserve currency. The greater geopolitical danger, however, is how quickly the Fed is falling behind.

What precisely will the US Treasury Department do about the rise of digital currencies? Secretary Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell should quickly harness the potential of these evolving financial tools, including a US-backed digital dollar.