U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Calls Bitcoin a Speculative Asset
Bitcoin is inefficient for transactions due to its highly speculative nature, said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Treasury Secretary @JanetYellen opened the #DealBookDC Policy Project, moderated by @nytimes‘s @andrewrsorkin, about the prospects for a post-pandemic recovery.
Here are highlights from the discussion. https://t.co/HTwImDn0oM pic.twitter.com/VfmxZO4pbc
— New York Times Events (@nytimesevents) February 22, 2021
“Digital currencies can enable faster and cheaper payments. But many questions must be studied, including consumer protection and money laundering”, — she said.
As part of the DealBook DC Policy Project, the Treasury Secretary also mentioned the need to consider launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to analyst Sven Henrich, Yellen has effectively declared war on Bitcoin.
Yellen declares war on #bitcoin https://t.co/cydx3GVjio
— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) February 22, 2021
Against the backdrop of Yellen’s remarks, bitcoin briefly dipped to $47,500. Ethereum price fell to $1,550. On Kraken, the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap slid to $700.
At the time of writing, bitcoin price had recovered to $53,500. Market capitalization stood at $993.7 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Janet Yellen headed the U.S. Treasury Department in January 2021. Before her appointment she promised to closely monitor the cryptocurrency market and to curb the use of digital currencies for illicit purposes.
Earlier, investor Michael Burry suggested that governments would fan inflation and begin to suppress gold and bitcoin as competitors.
In February, Fitch rating agency experts noted that tightening of supervision could pose an obstacle to the rapid popularization of cryptocurrencies.
According to analysts at investment bank Macquarie, CBDCs will yield to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in competitive battles if the latter become entrenched as a means of payment in electronic commerce.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog FEED — the full news feed, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.
Рассылки ForkLog: держите руку на пульсе биткоин-индустрии!