In her final press conference as Fed Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen called Bitcoin “a highly speculative asset” that “doesn’t constitute legal tender,” CNBC reported.
Yellen was speaking to reporters in a final presser event on Wednesday before she departs the U.S. Central Bank in February when the subject of Bitcoin came up.
“I would simply say that Bitcoin at this time plays a very small role in the payments system. It is not a stable store of value and it doesn’t constitute legal tender. It is a highly speculative asset,” Yellen said.
The Fed doesn’t play any regulatory role with respect to Bitcoin other than assuring that banking organizations that we do supervise are attentive that they are appropriately managing any interactions they have with participants in that market and appropriately monitoring AML acts and other responsibilities that they have,” she added.
“Has there been a directive about bitcoin to the banks and their dealings with bitcoin from the Federal Reserve?” Yellen was asked by one of the reporters.
“I don’t believe there has been anything specific about that,” she replied. “Generally, banks have bank secrecy act, AML responsibilities and this applies to bitcoin as it does with every other realm.”
A few years ago in 2014, Yellen underlined Bitcoin as a “payment innovation” taking shape outside the banking industry. “The fed doesn’t have the authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in any way,” Yellen said at the time.
Again she reiterated that statement today, “the Fed doesn’t really play any regulatory role with respect to Bitcoin,” Yellen said.
Speaking at the Federal Reserve Annual Meeting earlier this year, a three-day event attended by representatives from over 90 central banks, Yellen encouraged her colleagues to study the underlying blockchain technology.
Her predecessor former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at a Ripple event in October where he said that “central bank regulators will eventually squash Bitcoin” when it becomes a problem, adding that “blockchain has obvious benefits.”
“It’s an obvious area where new technologies like blockchain or these electronic currencies can be used to improve the process,” Bernanke said.
Ripple is currently trading at [FIAT: $0.780513] surging 73.98% since yesterday according to Coin Market Cap at the time of this report.
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