Key Takeaway:
- Kashkari labels cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, utterly useless in public remarks.
- Central bank narratives influence agencies’ approach to innovation, bank exposure, jurisdictional risk.
- Debate reframed: utility and consumer protection, not asset prices, drive policy reassessment.
Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, dismissed cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and stablecoins, as utterly useless in recent public remarks, according to Bitcoin Magazine. The phrasing signals sustained skepticism toward crypto’s real-world utility rather than its market size. The policy undertone centers on consumer protection and payments efficacy, not just asset prices.
Why it matters now: central bank narratives shape how agencies weigh payments innovation, bank exposure, and jurisdictional risk. The comments arrive as policymakers reassess whether any subset of crypto warrants distinct regulatory treatment or can be addressed under existing payments and securities rules. The Neel Kashkari crypto debate centers on utility, not price action.
Debate over stablecoins vs traditional payments often turns on cross-border performance, settlement finality, and control. As reported by Cointelegraph, Kashkari has argued that stablecoins do not add meaningful capability relative to PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle.
Summarizing that skepticism, Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said crypto is “utterly useless.” That framing positions stablecoins as redundant to contemporary fintech rails in advanced economies.
In practice, dollar stablecoins can move globally within minutes, settle around the clock on public blockchains, and enable programmable transfers. Traditional networks often rely on correspondent banks and batch windows; they provide chargebacks and robust consumer safeguards but can be slower across borders.
Control also differs: card networks and fintech providers can reverse or freeze transfers under policy, whereas on-chain transfers are harder to censor but hinge on exchange and issuer compliance. Illicit crypto transactions statistics are contested; as reported by CoinDesk in 2021, Rep. Tom Emmer cited estimates that crypto-based crime represented about 0.34% of activity.
Institutional views are not uniform. ZeroHedge has cited BlackRock CEO Larry Fink characterizing bitcoin as an emerging asset class and suggesting digital assets will become more of a reality worldwide, highlighting a split between central-bank caution and asset-manager optimism.
At the time of this writing, Bitcoin trades around 67,277 USD based on provided market data. Price context can inform sentiment, but it does not resolve the policy debate over payments utility and consumer protection.
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