Fed Chairman Powell: BTC is 'digital gold' and will not replace the US dollar

Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed), recently expressed his personal views on BTC at the DealBook summit of The New York Times, describing BTC as a 'digital version of gold' with no competitive relationship with the US dollar.

Powell pointed out at the summit: 'People see BTC as a speculative asset, right? It's like gold. Except that BTC is virtual and digitized.'

Powell emphasized that BTC has extremely high price volatility and is not suitable as a payment tool, as for whether it will threaten the status of the US dollar, he bluntly said:

BTC is not a competitor to the US dollar, it is more like a competitor to gold, that's my opinion.

In fact, Powell made similar remarks as early as 2021, when he pointed out that although BTC's volatility is too high to be used as currency, and it is not supported by anything, it may be an "alternative to gold".

In June last year, Powell also bluntly stated in Congress: 'BTC has 'staying power' (referring to the ability of a technology or asset to continue to function in the future)', which immediately ignited a high level of market follow-up to BTC.

After the dust settled from the November US presidential election, the price of BTC skyrocketed with bullish policies, and officially broke the $100,000 mark today (5th).

President-elect Donald Trump has shown a friendly attitude towards cryptocurrency. In July of this year, he publicly stated that he wanted to become the first BTC president of the United States.

And earlier today, Trump went further to appoint former regulatory official Paul Atkins as the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Paul Atkins has a friendly attitude towards the Crypto Assets industry and served as a member of the advisory committee of The Digital Chamber in 2020. This personnel appointment is interpreted as Favourable Information for the Crypto Assets market.

At the DealBook summit, when journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin asked "How does the Federal Reserve view Cryptocurrency," Powell clearly stated that the Central Bank's focus is to ensure that the interaction between the Cryptocurrency industry and the banking industry does not threaten the overall stability of the financial system. He added, "The Federal Reserve does not directly regulate Cryptocurrency, but we will closely monitor potential risks."

When asked if he considers investing in encryption currency, Bao said with a smile, "I'm not allowed to hold it."

As for speculation that Trump may pressure or demand Powell's resignation, he made it clear last month that even if Trump made such a request, he would not resign, and emphasized that 'the law does not give the president such power.' Powell also said that as an independent institution, the Fed's design is intended to avoid political pressure.