By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday that cryptocurrencies were not a useful store of value and called them a speculative asset.
“Crypto assets are highly volatile, see bitcoin, and therefore not really useful as a store of value,” Powell said at the Bank for International Settlements’ digital banking conference. “It’s more of a speculative asset that’s essentially a substitute for gold rather than for the dollar.”
The comments from the Fed chair come amid a rally in cryptocurrencies which has seen Bitcoin jump from a low below $6,000 to a high above $60,000 in less than 12 months.
However, following the comments at the conference, Bitcoin has moved further from its all-time high, dropping below $53,000 at one stage today.
Central Bank Digital Currencies
Powell also spoke about the Fed potentially issuing their own digital currency but, judging by his comments, it is unlikely there will be anything any time soon.
“To move forward on this, we would need buy-in from Congress, from the administration, from broad elements of the public, and we haven’t really begun the job of that public engagement,” the Fed chair said. “So you can expect us to move with great care and transparency with regard to developing a central bank digital currency.”