Digital currencies

Superintendent Harris led the takeover of Signature Bank after it failed this spring. She joins Editor-in-Chief Chana Schoenberger to reflect on the lessons of this year's banking crisis, and how she is modernizing supervision.

Widespread adoption of a central bank digital currency would utterly transform the financial services sector by reducing access to loans and raising prices for consumers.

"Florida will not side with economic central planners; we will not adopt policies that threaten personal economic freedom and security," said Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The crypto lender Celsius Network’s shock announcement that it’s freezing withdrawals sparked a rush by companies in the digital-assets sector to reassure markets about the health of their operations.

The creation of a U.S. dollar central bank digital currency is an existential threat to the banking industry and needs to be treated as such.

Wall Street lenders are calling on the U.S. government to hold off on launching a digital dollar, arguing that a virtual currency backed by the Federal Reserve risks draining hundreds of billions of dollars out of the banking system.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pointed to a recent implosion of the experimental TerraUSD stablecoin — which uses an algorithm rather than fiat currency pegging to maintain its value — as the latest evidence for urgently needed regulation in the sector.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell outlined four qualities a hypothetical digital currency in the U.S. must have while adding that no final decision has been made on whether to proceed with creating one.

Several central banks and the Bank for International Settlements have developed prototypes for a common digital currencies platform that has the potential to make cross-border payments more efficient.

Jamaica plans to give $16 of free money to the first 100,000 citizens who use its soon-to-be-launched Jam-Dex digital currency.