Members of Congress ask Fed chair Powell to account for central bank work on crypto

On September 28, seven members of Congress sent a letter to Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, asking about the U.S. central bank's work on cryptocurrency regulation.

The letter includes four questions, touching on the Fed's approach to cryptocurrency custody at federal banks and including its role in establishing international standards for a central bank digital currency. It further asks about the Fed's coordination with other financial regulators and a release date for a discussion paper on a CBDC. 

At a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee in July, Powell said: "You wouldn't need stablecoins, you wouldn't need cryptocurrencies if you had a digital U.S. currency."

The authors of yesterday's letter seemed to take umbrage with that statement, asking: "Do you believe a CBDC would make these applications, and the cryptocurrencies that power them, obsolete?"

Earlier today, Senator Cynthia Lummis took to the Senate floor to lay out a vision for CBDCs in advance of the Fed's much-anticipated report on the topic.