NYC, Nov 13 – When the IMF held its biweekly embargoed press briefing on November 13, Inner City Press was able to ask the Fund's spokesperson Julie Kozack about lobbying by US banks against cryptocurrency platforms paying interest or yield under the GENIUS Act, about the market structure legislative proposals by Senators Boozman and Booker, and stablecoins.
From the IMF transcript:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press: You were just asked about AI bubble, so I wanted to ask about cryptocurrency. The current administration is very, very pro crypto, and there's some debate. The banks in the United States are lobbying to say that crypto platforms shouldn't be allowed to pay interest or yield and thereby become kind of an alternative or sucking out deposits from the banking system. I wondered if the UN has any, excuse me, if the IMF has any view of that? You've given some policy guidance to other countries, but what generally does the IMF think about cryptocurrency and digital asset platforms paying interest or yield in competition with banks? And the implications. Thanks.
MS. KOZACK: on crypto and stablecoins, I don't have a specific answer to your question on interest payments. But what I can say is that digital assets and payments are driven by new technologies. Some are in the form of unbacked crypto assets like Bitcoin. Some are stablecoins. Some are other tokenized assets. Some are Central Bank digital currencies. And all of this kind of new infrastructure around digital payments, this is a big technological transformation that could reshape the International Monetary System. So, it's something that we are paying very close attention to at the IMF. Some of these digital assets offer the promise of more efficient payments, broader financial inclusion, and new instruments for cross-border transactions. But at the same time, they do also introduce some risks. Those risks are more acute in the case of unbacked crypto assets. And the risks, of course, must be carefully managed. And so, some of our work is really around assessing the potential risks and looking and working with our membership on how those risks can be best mitigated to ensure that the introduction of these new assets are consistent with macroeconomic and financial stability, that they're consistent with consumer and investor protection, and they're consistent with financial and market integrity.
She also said that the IMF's Article IV consultation with the US has been delayed, citing the government shutdown ended on November 12.
Previously, IMF spokesperson Kozack in response to Inner City Press' July questions on crypto offered some praise and some cautions. Video.
Inner City Press also asked in July if El Salvador is in fact merely moving Bitcoin it already owns between its own wallets, rather than buying more - that seems to be the case. Video
More video, including of November 13, coming on IMF's website.
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