IMF says crypto assets become hedges against weak currencies

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said recent efforts to regulate crypto assets are moving to the top of the policy agenda partly because “crypto assets are having a more mainstream presence as speculative investments, hedges against weak currencies, and potential payment instruments.”

These insights were included in the IMF report titled “Regulating Crypto: The right rules could provide a safe space for innovation”, authored by Monetary and Capital Markets Department deputy director Aditya Narain and assistant director Marina Moretti.

The paper, released this month, noted that applying existing regulatory frameworks to crypto assets, or developing new ones, is challenging.

“For a start, the crypto world is evolving rapidly. Regulators are struggling to acquire the talent and learn the skills to keep pace given stretched resources and many other priorities. Monitoring crypto markets is difficult because data are patchy, and regulators find it tricky to keep tabs on thousands of actors who may not be subject to typical disclosure or reporting requirements,” the paper read.

WOO Network Ecosystem's Mitchell Nicholson said that the pronouncement from IMF plays an important role in the wider adoption of crypto assets.

"Global regulators and organizations like the IMF, IOSCO, and BIS will play an important role in harmonizing national policies on crypto assets. Going forward, crypto asset organizations will likely choose to pre-emptively operate in a compliant manner to help ensure the global regulatory framework for crypto assets remains reasonable,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson said that some of the advantages of crypto assets include: seamlessly transferring stablecoins across borders, raising capital for innovative projects, or donating to charitable activities globally without intermediaries.

Before joining WOO, Nicholson held positions as an Economist at the Bank of Canada and a Manager in the Cryptoasset and Blockchain Practice at KPMG Canada.

Brazilians are among the first countries to use crypto assets to hedge against their currency. Back in 2020, they grew interested in stablecoins, amid the decline in the value of the Real vs the US dollar. To illustrate, back in August 2020, data from the central bank of Brazil showed that its people had $50 billion invested in crypto, while they invested only $16 billion in US stocks.The IMF paper can be downloaded here.

This week's top trending topics are around The Merge, Binance, and Taiwan

• Ethereum (ETH) developers confirmed the successful completion of the prerequisite shadow forks required for the highly anticipated upgrade known as The Merge, reports Cointelegraph.
• Binance said it is introducing BUSD Auto-Conversion for users' existing balances and new deposits of USDC, USDP, and TUSD stablecoins at a 1:1 ratio, effective from 29th September.
• WOO was recently included in a list of 24 registered virtual asset providers or VASPs released by the Banking Bureau of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC)

Security Incidents you need to be aware of

• Avalanche-based lending protocol Nereus Finance is the recent victim of a hack that saw the attacker net $371K USDC using a smart contract exploit, reports Cointelegraph.
• New Free DAO, a DeFi protocol, faced a series of flash loan attacks; resulting in a reported loss of $1.25 million. The attacker reportedly added itself as a member and executed three flash loans using an unverified contract.

Stay tuned for all of WOO Network’s exciting developments!

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