Many expect that a time could soon come when central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, replace physical dollars once and for all. Comments from United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, however, indicate that this may not be the case. The chairman’s comments were filmed and later shown at an event in Switzerland on Thursday, according to an article from Bloomberg. The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures put on the event. In his talk, Powell mentioned that the U.S. central bank and six other central banks collaboratively put together a report in conjunction with the Bank for International Settlements. …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor's note One day in the not-so-distant future, the curious experience of episodic television with its week-by-week gaps will be a weird thing that old people strain themselves not to talk about around the youths, until they eventually get, like, really old and stop caring and start turning all of the logistical inconveniences of their early memories into little moral parables. And by “they,” I mean me. And I’m looking forward to it. It’s possible that entertainment’s on-demand, all-the-time availability is …

This week's correction in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) showed that a market doesn’t go up in a straight line. Meanwhile, another topic has been gaining attention, namely the big rise in the 10-year yields of United States government bonds. In recent weeks, the 10-year Treasury yield of U.S. government bonds has surged 35% to a new high of 1.44%, the highest point since the cross-asset crash in March 2020. Treasury yield bounces from a 60-year low The 10-year Treasury yield has been accelerating massively in recent weeks, similar to the run-up to the economic downturns in 2000 and 2008. …

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 …

Updated 8:20 pm UTC: This article has been updated to reflect that all Federal Reserve Bank Services with the exception of Account Services are now back online. Nearly all of the services available through the Federal Reserve's online portal went down for more than an hour today. According to the Federal Reserve Bank Services website, the bank is currently experiencing a disruption in its Check 21, Check Adjustments, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command, FedLine Direct and FedLine Web services, which started at 6:18 pm UTC today. Its FedACH, Central Bank, FedCash, Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities and National Settlement services went offline …

Bitcoin (BTC) hit a new high over the weekend in the latest episode of its spectacular 2021 bull run — what’s next for hodlers? As the largest cryptocurrency approaches $60,000, Cointelegraph takes a look at the factors to consider when forecasting this week’s price action. Investor eyes stock market "reset" Equities showed no signs of flipping their endless upside on Monday, as buyers continued to pour in to the market. Despite warnings that a bubble may already be about to burst, markets built on all-time highs as anticipation of an economic recovery worldwide stoked enthusiasm. In the United States, it …

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, seemingly doesn’t understand why many are looking to cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange instead of a uniform currency like the U.S. dollar. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday, Bullard said the issue for making payments isn’t currencies that can be traded electronically but rather privately issued ones, as is the case for many cryptocurrencies. He referenced a time in the United States before the Civil War when there was confusion and a dislike for trading the “equivalent of Bank of America dollars and JPMorgan dollars …

United States President Joe Biden has rejected a Republican proposal for a COVID-19 relief bill that would have seen $618 billion allocated to struggling American households and businesses. Biden and newly appointed Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, dismissed the sum — just under the size of Bitcoin’s entire market capitalization — as insufficient for stimulating the economy amid the ongoing pandemic, Reuters reported. Democrats voted along party lines in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 2 to push through Biden’s relief bill that would see the GOP’s proposed sum more than trebled to $1.9 trillion. Senate leader Chuck Schumer told reporters anything …

For example, just last week, when the currency was hovering around the $30,000 threshold, a whole host of pundits was warning investors to brace for impact, suggesting that the premier crypto asset was on the verge of a correction and could once again dip to around the $20,000 region. However, in just one day, Bitcoin was once again playing with the bulls, retesting the $38,500 limit, only to witness a selloff and eventually settle around the $33,500 region. While for most crypto veterans that might have been another day at the office, others branded the upsurge as “Elon’s Candle,” which …

Janet Yellen, the former Chair of the Federal Reserve, is one step closer to earning the nomination of Treasury Secretary. The Senate Committee on Finance voted unanimously to approve Yellen’s nomination Friday morning, setting the stage for a full Senate vote. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said he hoped the GOP’s backing would signal “bipartisan” support under the new Democratic administration. Fellow Republicans said they backed Yellen despite disagreeing on several of her policy stances. The general consensus was that she was exceptionally qualified for the job. Committee members hoped for a full Senate vote to confirm Yellen's appointment on Friday …

Cryptocurrency stablecoins could become systemically important overnight, says United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and that’s why the Fed is determined to get its own central bank digital currency right. CBDCs are the banking industry’s answer to cryptocurrency stablecoins. While they are often hosted on the blockchain, they share little in the way of philosophical parity with their decentralized counterparts. CBDCs will be overseen by the banks that issue them and will be regulated under the laws of their respective jurisdictions. Speaking in an interview with Yahoo Finance, Powell said advances in technology had enabled private entities to create …

Goldman Sachs is reportedly one of several financial institutions to sign on to JPMorgan’s custom blockchain service — a sign that more broker-dealers were looking to take advantage of digital currencies for their repo operations. In an interview with Bloomberg, Scott Lucas, head of blockchain markets at JPMorgan, said the investment bank is already using blockchain to conduct billions of dollars worth of repurchase agreements. The bank utilizes JPM Coin, a dollar-backed stablecoin, to swap digitized U.S. Treasury bonds much more efficiently. As Bloomberg notes, JPMorgan conducted the first live trades internally utilizing its Onyx blockchain infrastructure. That was enough …