James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, seemingly doesn’t understand why many are looking to cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange instead of a uniform currency like the U.S. dollar.
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday, Bullard said the issue for making payments isn’t currencies that can be traded electronically but rather privately issued ones, as is the case for many cryptocurrencies. He referenced a time in the United States before the Civil War when there was confusion and a dislike for trading the “equivalent of Bank of America dollars and JPMorgan dollars and Wells Fargo dollars.”
“I think the same thing would occur with Bitcoin here,” said Bullard. “You don't want to go to a non-uniform currency where you're walking into Starbucks and maybe you'll pay with Ethereum, maybe you'll pay with Ripple, maybe you'll pay with Bitcoin, maybe you'll pay with a dollar — that isn't how we do this.”
The Fed president referenced other privately issued currencies globally that are required to abide by the same restrictions as any currency issued by a central authority. He said private currencies aren't able to maintain a stable value against goods and other currencies, nor is their future supply "at all clear."
Bullard’s comments came as Bitcoin (BTC) hit a new all-time high price of more than $50,000 Tuesday morning. Though the Fed president said characterizing the crypto asset as a rival to gold “might be a good way to think about” Bitcoin, he largely reserved his bullish remarks for the U.S. dollar.
“It's going to be a dollar economy as far as the eye can see and a dollar global economy really as far as the eye can see. Whether the gold price goes up or down or the Bitcoin price goes up or down doesn't really affect that.”
NYDIG files for US-based Bitcoin ETF, with Morgan Stanley on board
The crypto-focused financial services company has filed S-1 paperwork with the SEC, reigniting the debate over a Bitcoin ETF.
NEWS
New York Digital Investment Group, or NYDIG, has submitted paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
NYDIG filed a Form S-1 registration statement for a Bitcoin ETF with the SEC on Tuesday. The submission lists NYDIG Trust Company LLC as the fund’s Bitcoin custodian and Morgan Stanley as an authorized participant.
As an authorized participant, Morgan Stanley is expected to sell shares to the public at prices that reflect the fund’s assets, supply and demand, and underlying market conditions. The shares will trade on the NYSE Arca exchange under a yet-to-be-determined ticker symbol.
According to the prospectus summary:
“The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin less the expenses of the Trust’s operations. The Trust will not seek to reflect the performance of any benchmark or index.”
It continues:
“In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Trust will hold bitcoin.”
NYDIG has been highly active in the crypto space, as it seeks to provide more institutional exposure to digital assets like Bitcoin. In Nov and Dec 2020, the company raised $150 million through two separate cryptocurrency investment funds. NYDIG was granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services in 2018.
Stone Ridge, NYDIG’s parent company, is one of the largest institutional holders of Bitcoin.
The quest for a Bitcoin ETF has been elusive, at least in the United States, where several fund issuers have tried unsuccessfully to get regulatory approval.
Canada recently approved the first publicly-traded Bitcoin ETF in North America, allowing institutional investors to access BTC investments directly without derivatives.