IMF Warns Against Adopting Crypto Assets As National Currency

The International Monetary Fund has warned against plans by some countries to adopt crypto asets such as bitcoin and ethereum as legal tenders.

This was contained in a post titled, “Crypto Assets as National Currency? A Step Too Far” by the Financial Counselor and Director, IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Tobias Adrian, and the General Counsel and Director of the IMF’s Legal Department, Rhoda Weeks-Brown.

The fund said it did not see crypto assets or currencies catching on as national currencies, pointing numerous risks and adverse effects involved if such happened.

The post read in part, “Bitcoin and its peers have mostly remained on the fringes of finance and payments, yet some countries are actively considering granting crypto assets legal tender status, and even making these a second (or potentially only) national currency.

“If a crypto asset were granted legal tender status, it would have to be accepted by creditors in payment of monetary obligations, including taxes, similar to notes and coins (currency) issued by the central bank.

“Countries can even go further by passing laws to encourage the use of crypto assets as a national currency, that is, as an official monetary unit (in which monetary obligations can be expressed), and a mandatory means of payment for everyday purchases.

“Crypto assets are unlikely to catch on in countries with stable inflation and exchange rates, and credible institutions.

“Households and businesses would have very little incentive to price or save in a parallel crypto asset such as Bitcoin, even if it were given legal tender or currency status. Their value is just too volatile and unrelated to the real economy.

“Even in relatively less stable economies, the use of a globally recognised reserve currency such as the dollar or euro would likely be more alluring than adopting a crypto asset.”