During his ongoing testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that cryptocurrencies had failed as a means of payment:
Let me say this. With cryptocurrencies, it's not they didn't aspire to be a payment mechanism, it's that they completely failed to become one (except for people who desire anonymity, of course, for whatever reason).
He adds that stablecoins are also growing incredibly fast without "appropriate regulation." As reported by U.Today, the central banker argued that private dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies would not be able to replace "a sound monetary system."
Financial conditions are highly accommodative. People are getting things financed. SPACs and things like that are getting done. We see Bitcoin going up in value and down in value. At times, it's felt like a somewhat frothy market. You do worry about that.
Bitcoin is currently down nearly 45 percent since Powell called it an instrument for speculation back in March. It is currently changing hands at $31,613 on the Bitstamp exchange.