In a blog post by the head of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Tobias Adrian, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for a definitive global regulation of the cryptocurrency market. With digital assets growing significantly in recent months, Adrian warned of the risks in the evolving sector that “could soon become systemic in some countries.”
Desperate for a framework
As reported by business portal MoneyWeek, the IMF seeks to apply a “comprehensive, coherent, and coordinated” regulation to bitcoin and other digital currencies to “safeguard the stability of the international monetary and financial system,” which is being “profoundly” changed by crypto assets.
Adrian alludes to the fact that crypto assets and associated products and services have grown rapidly in recent years, but that this is still an unregulated financial system. In fact, the IMF is concerned that “interconnections” with the regulated financial system are increasing.
Determining the valuation —Adrian claims— is not the only challenge in the crypto ecosystem, as “identifying, monitoring, and managing risks can challenge regulators and businesses. These include, for example, the operational and financial integrity risks of crypto asset exchanges and wallets, investor protection and inadequate reserves, and inaccurate disclosure of some stablecoins.”
