Wouter Witvoet, CEO of DeFi Technologies: “In the past, El Salvador struggled with trust in its monetary policy, so in 2001, it ‘dollarized’ its economy and effectively gave control of its monetary system to the U.S. Federal Reserve. It saw the U.S. dollar as a more stable, trustworthy currency than its own. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the U.S. has been pursuing a very experimental form of monetary policy involving tools like quantitative easing and a central bank that now directly monetizes, or purchases, government-issued debt to keep interest rates low. This is a playbook that is dictated by …

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank and a major financial regulator, is challenging fintech companies to pitch solutions for a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. On Monday, the central bank officially announced a global challenge that seeks new retail CBDC solutions which enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion. As part of the initiative, the MAS is planning to distribute 50,000 Singapore dollars, or $37,000 USD at time of publication, to each of three challenge winners. They will also provide expert mentorship to 15 finalists in an effort t encourage rapid development of digital currency solutions. …

Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” While attending the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami two weeks ago, several things struck me as interesting and significant. While many others have already reported on the conference, my focus will be on a handful of comments or events that I believe are …

JPMorgan is the latest source to respond to El Salvador’s decision to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal currency within the country. In a client note tweeted by @DocumentingBTC, the United States banking giant stated that there was little economic benefit to El Salvador adopting BTC as a parallel legal tender to the U.S. dollar. JP Morgan on El Salvador adopting #Bitcoin Notice the last line... pic.twitter.com/5hl0kR9WB0 — Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) June 11, 2021 On Thursday, El Salvador’s parliament passed a historic bill to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The “Bitcoin Law” bill passed by an overwhelming majority of 62 out …

Benoît Cœuré, Bitcoin (BTC) critic and the head of the innovation hub at the Bank of International Settlements, called El Salvador’s historic move to make BTC legal tender in the country an “interesting experiment.” According to Reuters, Cœuré made this assertion during the launch of the BIS’s fourth innovation hub in England on Friday, stating: “We have been clear at the BIS that we don’t see bitcoin as having passed the test of being a means of payments. Bitcoin is a speculative asset and should be regulated at such.” As previously reported by Cointelegraph, El Salvador’s parliament passed a bill …

The International Monetary Fund has said El Salvador’s recent decision to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country may raise legal and financial concerns. In a Thursday press briefing from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, spokesperson Gerry Rice said the group was already in discussions with lawmakers in El Salvador over a loan to support the country’s economy, having approved emergency funds related to the pandemic last year. However, Rice said an IMF team would be meeting with president Nayib Bukele today and implied crypto would be a likely topic for discussion. “Adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender raises …

A representative for the International Monetary Fund has said the Marshall Islands’ digital sovereign currency would currently pose a risk to the islands’ financial stability. Following a March consultation, International Monetary Fund, or IMF, representative Yong Sarah Zhou said the issuance of the Marshall Islands’ digital sovereign currency, called SOV, as legal tender would “raise risks to macroeconomic and financial stability as well as financial integrity” of the islands. According to Zhou, the measures the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or RMI, took to contain COVID-19 may have been "swift and strong," but also strained the local economy. “The issuance …

The continuing transition to digital finance is likely to affect sectors across the board. Artisans, or skilled craftsmen and women, are no exception. According to Kristalina Georgieva, managing director for the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, digital money for these skilled workers hinges on a tetrad of factors. “The artisan’s digital future will rest on four cornerstones: private sector innovation, public sector involvement, regulatory and legal frameworks, and international cooperation,” Georgieva said on Friday during a BlockShow conference segment. How do online payments and finance affect skilled workers though? Digital transactions and capabilities hold the potential to speed up the …

Barely 100 years ago at the start of the 20th century, people were able to exchange dollars for gold at their local bank. While gold was too hard to trade between people, banking institutions held gold and gave people cash for it. This was during what was known as the gold standard. Each sovereign currency’s value was determined relative to a fixed amount of gold. However, in the decades ahead, that standard quickly changed. Toward the end of World War II, dozens of powerful people organized a meeting to discuss a new monetary agreement designed to minimize the economic damage …

Bitcoin (BTC) is winning the battle of the safe havens as another corporate buy-in sees $115 million enter its books. Asset management giant Stone Ridge confirmed that it made the significant purchase via its spin-off New York Digital Investment Group or NYDIG, which now has over $1 billion in assets under management. Economist: Fed must print $5 trillion in 2021 “The macro backdrop against the public health backdrop has caused a lot of people to rethink their portfolio composition,” the company’s new CEO, Robert Gutmann, told Forbes on Oct. 13. Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, which purchased $425 million of …

China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment system is at the forefront of news around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. As China will be the first nation to launch a CBDC, the changes a digital yuan promises for global economics and the role this plan plays in pushing for a “currency war” keeps its project in headlines. For its part, the proposed currency not only poses a threat but is intended to threaten, and potentially unseat, the U.S. dollar for the top position of global reserve currency. However, to understand how successful a digital yuan may be in this endeavor, it’s …

An old International Monetary Fund video explaining the benefits and disadvantages of cryptocurrency has resurfaced on social media, and many viewers are largely unimpressed. The two-minute video originally published in June 2018, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) posted to its Twitter account on Aug. 23, refers to cryptocurrency as the “next step in the evolution of money” without specifically mentioning terms like a decentralized ledger, blockchain, or even token names. Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, and Ethereum (ETH) make an appearance only in a graphic illustrating crypto transactions. What are cryptocurrencies? https://t.co/ggONlLkA2r pic.twitter.com/yYpj3Jf37E — IMF (@IMFNews) August 23, 2020 Though the …