The president of the United States, Joe Biden, will sign a decree this week in which he will order his government to evaluate the creation of a US cryptocurrency, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Monday (03/07/2022) .
Biden’s measure will instruct the White House to study the technical requirements that would be necessary to create an official digital currency in the United States that – like the dollar – would be backed by the Federal Reserve (Fed). Biden will also ask the Treasury Department to examine the potential risks that cryptocurrencies pose to financial stability or national security, including through illicit finance, the newspaper said.
The decree, which will be formally announced sometime this week according to the newspaper, will give US agencies between three and six months to prepare recommendations on the cryptocurrency market. In addition, they will analyze how other countries manage digital payment systems and what their effect may be on economic competitiveness, as well as the environmental impact of mining (creation) of cryptocurrencies in computers that consume a lot of energy.
Since the launch of bitcoin -the most widely used cryptocurrency- 13 years ago, the US government has not been very clear about how to regulate its use and, until now, has not designed an exhaustive regulation in this regard.
The United States has criticized, however, the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador: last week, the State Department warned in a report that this complicates the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the country.
In addition, in February 2022, three US senators presented a legislative initiative to draw up a plan that “mitigates the risks” that the use of bitcoin in El Salvador has for the US financial system.