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- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Tuesday that he was looking closely at the issuance of a digital U.S. dollar.
- According to the evidence, Powell called the potential digital dollar a ‘high priority’ project.
- The possible issuance of a digital dollar would come amid a surge in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which briefly exceeded $ 1 billion in market value last week.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress Tuesday that the Fed is “carefully” considering whether to issue a digital U.S. dollar.
A digital currency developed by the Fed is a ‘high priority project for us’, Powell told Congress, but he added that there are ‘significant technical and policy issues’ associated with a digital US dollar .
“We are committed to solving the technological problems, and to consulting very extensively with the public and very transparently with all interested constituencies as to whether we should do so,” Powell said.
As the world’s reserve currency, Powell emphasized that the US should not be the first to issue a digital dollar, but that it ‘should get it right’.
“This is something in which we invest time and labor in the federal reserve system,” Powell said.
The move comes amid a rise in popularity for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. Bitcoin briefly reached $ 1 trillion in market value last week and traded above $ 58,000 over the weekend.