Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said the central bank doesn’t have authority to regulate bitcoin.Subscribe or Sign InYellen Reportedly Urges Central Banks to Study Blockchain, Bitcoin Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen encouraged her fellow central bankers to accelerate their studies of new financial technologies, specifically mentioning bitcoin, the blockchain, and other distributed ledgers, according to the trade group whose conference she attended.The June 1 event in Washington, attended by representatives from more than 90 central banks, was closed to the press.The Chamber of Digital Commerce, which organized the conference, summarized her remarks in a press release Monday."Thefact that the words bitcoin and blockchain were spoken by chairwoman Yellen in a positive context highlights the importance of emerging financial technology," said Perianne Boring, president of the Chamber.The Fed declined to comment.A conference agenda listed several speakers from Fed including Yellen, as well as representatives from Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and the International Monetary Fund.

Blockchain is an "important technology" given its potential impact on the global financial system, Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said today.The remarks were issued during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a US public affairs forum, in which Yellen took part in a question-and-answer session with club board chair George Scalise.At one point, Scalise asked Yellen whether the Federal Reserve – which released its first major research paper on distributed ledgers in December – was looking at using the tech for its own purposes.bitcoin kurs chart euroHere’s what Yellen had to say in response: "[Blockchain] is a very important, new technology that could have implications for the way in which transactions are handled throughout the financial system.bitcoin buffalo nyWe're looking at it in terms of its promise in some of the technologies we use ourselves and many financial institutions are looking at it.litecoin buy canada

It could make a big difference to the way in which transactions are cleared and settled in the global economy."In a way, Yellen's remarks echo those given in September of last year, when the Fed chair told a Congressional committee that the tech could have "very significant implications" for the US payments ecosystem and beyond."I think innovation using these technologies could be extremely helpful and bring benefits to society," she said at the time.online bitcoin wallet apiThe Fed is currently pursuing additional research into the tech, with an eye to release a follow-up paper sometime this year.asic bitcoin cardA recent event in Washington attended by representatives from over 90 central banks had Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen encourage her counterparts to study emerging technologies, specifically mentioning bitcoin and the blockchain.1 bitcoin equal to usd

The Federal Reserve Annual Meeting, a three-day event hosted by the Federal Reserve, World Bank, and the IMF in Washington had a notable attendee this year in the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC).The group represents the blockchain industry and is the world’s largest trade association in the space.This year’s gathering specifically focused on financial technology or fintech and with the aptly titled event “Finance in Flux: The Technological Transformation of the Financial Sector.” The theme of this year’s conference was on bitcoin’s underlying technology – blockchain and the FinTech sector.While the event was closed to the press, the CDC, in a press release, revealed that Janet Yellen, the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Fed Reserve, urged her fellow central bankers to study new innovation in the financial industry.Notably, she mentioned bitcoin and blockchain specifically as innovations that needed to be understood by central banks.Stating that the global financial system had undeniably benefited from fintech, she encouraged central banks to ‘do all they can to learn about financial innovations including bitcoin, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies,’ the press release revealed.

Yellen has, in a stance that benefits bitcoin and blockchain innovation, stated that the Fed Reserve does not have the authority to regulate the cryptocurrency.At a hearing in Congress in early 2014, an event that was streamed live to a worldwide audience, Yellen stated: Bitcoin is a payment innovation that’s taking place outside the banking industry.To the best of my knowledge there’s no intersection at all, in any way, between Bitcoin and banks that the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise and regulate.So the fed doesn’t have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway.In a statement included in the CDC press release of the recently concluded event, Bitcoin Core Developer and Bloq CEO Jeff Garzik added: Some of the greatest potential benefits of blockchain technology are going to be first seen actively leveraged in emerging nations.While addressing the assembled group of central bankers, he reportedly spoke about the characteristics of blockchain technology.

Ironically, the features he discussed included decentralization while talking to central bankers, cryptography, immutability, trust shifting and other features.CDC Founder and President Perianne Boring joined Yellen in urging the Federal Reserve and other central banks to embrace blockchain technology.She outlined the reason in a statement that said: We believe blockchain technologies are capable of providing the Fed and other regulators with next generation tools to fulfill their mission of monitoring the safety and soundness of the financial system more effectively.Federal Reserve chair told banking committee regulators are confident US law is ‘adequate to meet enforcement needs’ Federal Reserve Board chair Janet Yellen repeated on Thursday that the Fed will continue the trim asset purchases.Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Federal Reserve chair told banking committee regulators are confident US law is ‘adequate to meet enforcement needs’ The Federal Reserve has no authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin, chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Thursday.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee in the week that the controversial digital currency’s largest exchange collapsed, Yellen was asked about Bitcoin’s potential impact by senator Joe Manchin.On Wednesday, Manchin wrote to the Fed, Treasury and other regulators warning that the currency was “disruptive to our economy” and calling for its regulation.“Bitcoin is a payment innovation that’s taking place outside the banking industry.So the Fed doesn’t have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway,” said Yellen.Yellen said there were concerns about the currency being used for for money laundering but that regulators were confident that US law was “adequate to meet enforcement needs”.US authorities arrested Charlie Shrem, the CEO of Bitcoin exchange BitInstant, and another man, Robert Faiella, last month and charged them with laundering money for customers of online drug bazaar Silk Road.Manchin asked Yellen whether the US was “behind the curve” among countries issuing warnings on or regulating Bitcoin.

In his letter Manchin noted that Thailand and China had banned Bitcoin and South Korea had stated it will not recognize Bitcoin as a legitimate currency.“Several other countries, including the European Union, have issued warnings to Bitcoin users as their respective governments consider options for regulating or banning its use entirely,” he wrote.“The Fed doesn’t have authority with respect to Bitcoin,” said Yellen.“But certainly it would be appropriate for Congress to ask questions about what the right legal structure would be for digital currencies.” “It’s not so easy to regulate Bitcoin because there’s no central issuer or network operator.This is a decentralized, global [entity]... We’re looking at this,” she concluded.Yellen’s comments come after the collapse of Mt Gox, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges.The exchange collapsed Tuesday after a series of cyberattacks and amid accusations of mismanagement.Federal prosecutors are now investigating the exchange’s collapse.