In a recent discussion at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Republican Senator Mike Crapo suggested that stablecoins can solve accessibility issues with the financial system. According to him, current financial systems require the opening of a checking account, which ends up being a barrier of entry.
In addition to discussing stablecoins as an instrument of access to the financial system, the Committee has also shown itself open to the digital dollar. Even though the idea of a CBDC (central bank digital currencies) is not a consensus among legislators, no one has explicitly rejected it.
However, some were wary. Democrat Sherrod Brown drew attention to old promises from technology companies, who said they would build a “fairer and more equal country”, but who only sought ways to increase payments serving their interests.
Yet the Republican Senator Tom Cotton said that “the U.S. needs a digital dólar”, according to Coindesk. Cotton explained that the U.S. currency needs to ensure that it maintains its position in the global payment system. So, “it needs to be better than the bitcoin… it needs to be better than a digital yuan”.
In this sense, Senate subcommittees met to discuss economic policy, focusing on economic competition between the United States and China. At the time, the digital dollar returned to the debate.
China may come out ahead with sovereign “stablecoin”
On this occasion, the creation of a cryptocurrency was mentioned as one of the possible tools to maintain U.S. economic supremacy. In other words, it seems that U.S. senators are a little more open to the idea of having a digital dollar.
Christopher Giancarlo, who has chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and has long advocated for the digital dollar, has once again encouraged the country to test an official cryptocurrency.
“For us, maintaining the supremacy of the dollar is not just an economic issue. It’s a strategic issue too”, Cotton said, according to Coindesk.
When questioned about the steps needed to create the digital dollar, Giancarlo recalled, for example, that China has been preparing for the launch of the digital yuan, which would give the Asian country an advantage.
