The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that crypto assets are no longer niche.
The Washington, D.C.-based agency recently published a report examining the right rules for regulating crypto. Efforts to regulate the space have moved to the top of its policy agenda, according to authors Aditya Narain, the IMF’s deputy director of Monetary and Capital Markets, and Marina Moretti, assistant director at the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.
“This is partly because it’s only in the past few years that crypto assets have moved from being niche products in search of a purpose to having a more mainstream presence as speculative investments, hedges against weak currencies, and potential payment instruments,” the report stated.
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The crypto world is evolving rapidly, which makes regulation challenging, they added.
“Regulators are struggling to acquire the talent and learn the skills to keep pace given stretched resources and many other priorities,” they said.
Moreover, monitoring crypto markets has also proved challenging given the patchy data and thousands of actors who are not subject to typical disclosure requirements.
The IMF's acknowledgment that cryptocurrencies could provide a hedge against weaker currencies comes after IMF board members urged El Salvador to drop Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) as legal tender, warning that it could pose dire consequences for the nation.
Price Action: At press time, BTC was trading at $18,832, down 5.49% over the last 24 hours, as per data from Benzinga Pro.
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