Cryptocurrencies are also not “a great store of value,” Powell said at the Cato Institute in Washington.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday that cryptocurrencies are not being used for payments, noting that the public interest in these assets is more speculative in nature.
Powell said this during a conference at the Cato Institute, Washington, DC
Responding to a question in a Q&A session, the Fed chair told think tank attendees that unsupported cryptocurrencies do not offer, or do not offer, the payment use case that the public really wants to have. .
According to him, cryptocurrencies are also not great as stores of value, reiterating the fact that crypto is actually “a speculative asset.”
Crypto and other risk assets keep an eye on fresh volatility
Powell’s remarks at the monetary policy conference come as the crypto asset struggles with a crushing bear market with Bitcoin trading below $20,000 and Ethereum looking to re-establish new momentum above $1,600. For Ethereum, this could be the most defining upgrade of the next week (around mid-September) – the merge.
At the time of writing, Ether is trading at around $1,638, up about 4.5% over the past 24 hours. ETH is also green throughout the week, but last month lost $2k. It remains down more than 7% after falling from
Meanwhile, asset markets with broader risks are gearing up for tighter monetary policies from central banks.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank raised its core interest rate by 75 basis points while the Fed is set to hike it for the third time in a row by 0.75% at its next FOMC meeting on September 20-21. The reaction in US equities saw some injection of volatility and helped major indices post a second day of modest gains.
The S&P 500 closed up more than 0.6%, as did the Dow Jones Industrial and Nasdaq, with the stock market gearing up for a weekly close that would help reverse a three-week slump.