Top Fed Official Warns About US Falling Behind in Digital Dollar Race

A top Federal Reserve official gave a stark warning to House lawmakers on Thursday: Move too slow in issuing a central bank digital currency and the dollar's global dominance could eventually be in jeopardy. From a report: "We shouldn't take the dollar's global status as the dominant payment currency for granted," Lael Brainard, the Fed's vice chair, said at a congressional hearing on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). "If major foreign jurisdictions move to the issuance of their own digital currencies, it's important to think about whether the United States would continue to have the same kind of dominance without also issuing. I would hate for Congress to decide five years from now: 'You, Federal Reserve, you need to catch up. China's out there. The [European Central Bank] is out there.'" The Fed just wrapped a public comment period on its highly-anticipated report laying out the pros and cons of developing its own CBDC. This came amid the explosion in popularity of stablecoins, which aim to tie their value to a fiat currency (like the U.S. dollar).

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