Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva stated that countries need to adapt to the digital transformation of fiat currencies as quickly as possible. This was reported by the media citing her words during a panel discussion dedicated to cryptocurrencies.
Georgieva emphasized that the digitization of national currencies is a "very good and powerful" trend. At the same time, she distinguished central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) from unsecured crypto assets such as Bitcoin. According to the head of the fund, the IMF does not recommend using the first cryptocurrency as a reserve asset.
Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund warned that the stablecoin market could threaten traditional lending, complicate the conduct of monetary policy, and provoke capital outflows from some of the most reliable assets in the world.
The IMF also added that stablecoins could complicate the conduct of monetary policy since countries will lose some control over interest rates as a tool for curbing inflation if tokens pegged to the dollar begin to be used as an alternative currency. Their spread could change the structure of the bond market, increasing demand for certain types of debt instruments and affecting traditional lending, the fund noted.
