|
"The main issue in crypto-asset regulation isn’t how to protect
sophisticated crypto-investors; it’s how to protect the rest of
us," Waller said in remarks prepared for delivery to the SNB-CIF
Conference on Cryptoassets and Financial Innovation in Zurich.
In particular, he said, the aim of regulation would be "to
protect society from the often-irresistible pressure to
socialize the losses of investors with limited resources, and to
limit the spread of financial stress."
In the last five years crypto assets have proliferated from a
niche market valued at around $14 billion to a $3 trillion
industry.
Several high-profile collapses in the crypto world recently have
prompted calls for better guardrails for what's essentially an
unregulated market. One reason: their popularity. A recent Fed
survey showed about 12% of U.S. adults used or held
cryptocurrency in the past year, mostly for investment purposes.
Other surveys suggest the number of crypto-users is even higher.
In March President Joe Biden directed the Treasury and other
agencies to start looking at how best to regulate the industry,
even as central banks around the world - including the Fed -
look into the possibility of creating a central-bank-backed
digital currency.
Waller is among those at the Fed who say they don't see a reason
for issuing a central bank digital currency that would compete
with privately backed digital currencies.
On Friday he laid out his reasoning for why those privately
backed currencies do need better oversight, despite arguments
from inside the industry that the markets are better left to
their own devices so as to foster more innovation.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
