Fed Chairman Jerome Powell testified ahead of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on February 11, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell asserted on Tuesday that the central bank would not develop its own digital currency as long as he was responsible.
Powell said at a Senate hearing that the project could not move forward, ending years of speculation about whether the Fed would join some global peers, including China, to develop formal cryptocurrencies or many of them.
“I can promise that as long as you are the chairman of the Fed system, we will never have the central bank’s digital currency?” Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) asked Powell during his time as president. Semi-annual testimony Regarding monetary policy and regulations.
“Yes,” Powell replied.
“Thank you, I think it’s very important,” Moreno said. “I’m so happy to hear you say that.”
Powell’s term as Fed Chief will end in May 2026.
The Fed has been studying this issue for at least four years, Extensive research in 2022 This details the advantages and disadvantages of not reaching conclusions.
Over the years, multiple officials have attracted attention, and most say there is no obvious need for CBDC and cited concerns about privacy and other issues. Powell also stressed that creating a CBDC would require Congressional legislation bills, and that the Republican majority would have less likely to control two Chambers in Washington, D.C.
At the same time, the central bank has Launched its Fednow payment system Essentially, this solves many problems that some feed-backed cryptocurrencies will also solve.
Moreno asked Powell to continue working on Fednow to make the 24-hour money transfer more extensively.
