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AxiosThe digital dollar is now high priority for the Fed
The U.S. is starting to get serious about a central-bank-backed digital currency, with recent comments from top officials laying out the strongest support yet.Driving the news: On Tuesday Fed chair Jerome Powell told Congress that developing a digital dollar is a "high priority project for us," but added that there are "significant technical and policy questions."Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeOn Wednesday Fed researchers released a report titled "Preconditions for a general-purpose central bank digital currency," detailing just what some of those questions might be. Why it matters: More consumers and financial institutions are transitioning toward digital payments, putting greater pressure on policymakers to ensure the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency remains intact.The big picture: Powell's "high priority" language and the ensuing report reflect a shift in rhetoric and action from the Fed, which had previously urged caution and patience on the development of a digital dollar.Treasury Secretary and former Fed chair Janet Yellen had similar comments earlier this week, saying, “It makes sense for central banks to be looking at” the issue.“Too many Americans don’t have access to easy payments systems and banking accounts, and I think this is something that a digital dollar, a central bank digital currency, could help with. It could result in faster, safer and cheaper payments, which I think are important goals.”What's happening: Cash accounted for just 20.5% of all in-store payments globally, down by nearly a third from 2019, according to a report from financial services company FIS. By 2024 FIS expects that to drop to 13%."The pandemic accelerated the decline of cash by over three years, exceeding in 2020 our previous projection for 2023," FIS analysts note in the report.Between the lines: Perhaps more important than the decline in cash usage is the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and the acceleration of real-world testing by China's central bank of its own digital currency.Data analysis company MicroStrategy announced Wednesday it had purchased another $1 billion of bitcoin, while payment processor Square announced it had added another $170 million of the cryptocurrency.China on Tuesday said that the People's Bank of China was extending testing of its digital renminbi to the city of Chengdu, which is home to 16 million people.And the PBOC announced it would be participating in a cross-border payment project with the central banks of Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong that would explore distributed ledger technology.More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
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