Fed/Daly: Cryptocurrency is Not an Asset Like Gold

According to San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, cryptocurrency should be seen as its own asset class and should not be equated with gold as often assumed. In a statement on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast, Daly said, "I see crypto as a complex thing and the service we need to perform for everyone is to really uncover what we mean, and once we've done that, tell them what it is. It can be a currency. It can be a medium of exchange. It can be a stock - an asset that preserves its value or sometimes loses value. We just need to define these terms. That's why I don't think of it like gold. It sometimes has gold-like characteristics, but I don’t think of it that way."

Daly's assessment is somewhat different from that of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who energized the crypto community earlier this month with his comments about bitcoin. Powell stated at the New York Times DealBook conference, "People are using bitcoin as a speculative asset. Just like gold, only virtual, digital. People are not using it as a means of payment or a store of value. It's quite volatile. It's not a competitor to the dollar; it's really a competitor to gold."