India Sees Bitcoin Threat to Monetary Policy
Officials from the Indian Central Bank (RBI) have issued a warning that the adoption of crypto assets in the country could inhibit them from enacting effective monetary policy.
Regulators have expressed concern about a rapid dollarization of the economy induced by cryptocurrency adoption because these new assets are usually denominated in United States dollars (USD). They believe that such a development could threaten India’s sovereign interest and financial stability.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and former Minister of State (MoS) Finance Jayant Sinha acknowledged that banning certain technologies will only hamper the growth and innovation in the country. However, they identified the serious risk that several crypto assets could serve as a medium of exchange between individuals and potentially replace fiat currencies, eventually even the dollar.
44 Countries to Meet in El Salvador to Discuss Bitcoin
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced that financial regulators from 44 countries are coming to the Latin American country on 16 May, 2022 to discuss “banking the unbanked,” financial inclusion, and the country’s groundbreaking adoption of the Bitcoin standard.
The officials from the Central Bank of Paraguay, Bank of Ghana, Nepal Rastra Bank, Central Bank of Guinea, State Bank of Pakistan, Bank of the Republic of Haiti, Central Bank of Eswatini and its Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of The Gambia, among others are attending the event.
After 12 years of its inception, Bitcoin was adopted as a legal tender by its first country, El Salvador, and only eight months later by the second one, the Central African republic. Whistleblower Edward Snowden claims that El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin has started a race among developing nations to.adopt the BTC standard. Early adopters wil be exponentially ahead of their peers if Bitcoin becomes a global reserve currency.
Goldman Sachs and Barclays Invested in Elwood
Banking giants Goldman Sachs and Barclays have joined the $70 million Series A funding round of institutional cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood Technologies.
The company is the first crypto-focused initiative launched by hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard. Galaxy Digital, Dawn Capital, and German financial institution Commerzbank also participated in the funding round. Investors have valued the trading platform at $600 million.
Funding for the trading platform had already been scheduled before the May 2022 cryptocurrency price crash, which slashed nearly 15% of the total market capitalization from the crypto industry.
Elwood is betting that traditional financial institutions like banks and hedge funds will be interested in investing in crypto assets through a trusted source, despite the ongoing bearish trend in the digital assets market. The new platform provides institutional investors with crypto portfolio management functionality, market stats, and trading services.
