Yellen Stresses Need for Central Bank Digital Currency

Washington D.C. – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday reiterated the importance of building a regulatory framework for digital assets, referencing Terra as one possible danger and Tether’s “breaking the buck” as a result of the crash.

In a conversation at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual meeting in Washington D.C., Yellen acknowledged that while there are more existing regulations that can be applied to crypto “than people think,” there are also many “holes” that need to be addressed.

Yellen said she would like to work with Congress to fill those holes as digital finance is “a tough thing to regulate,” she said.

In regards to a central bank digital currency, which the Treasury Secretary thinks has advantages and potential to solve many problems, Yellen said that while the process could take multiple years, it is “certainly worth getting involved in developing.”

“We can continue to think about whether it’s right to implement,” she said, but the U.S. should be “in a position where we could issue one.”

Last week, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), which Yellen is part of alongside Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell and many others, published a report asking Congress to step in to provide guidance on where the limits of securities regulation should be.

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