A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is pushing the Federal Reserve to explore and launch a digital dollar, so the U.S. can maintain its status as the global reserve currency. But Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says the central bank has other issues to take care of first (like inflation), and the White House has so far remained neutral as President Joe Biden ordered a study on what sort of impact a digital dollar could have on the economy. David Maria, Head of Litigation and Regulatory Affairs at Bittrex, joins Closing Bell to discuss what a digital dollar launch could look like, how it could impact the crypto space and the market, and more.

Closing Bell

U.S. Lawmakers Push Fed to Launch Digital Dollar, But How Would It Impact Crypto, Markets, and More?

well, crypto prices assigned if some U. S. Lawmakers get their way, we could see a new digital assets soon. A bipartisan group of representatives including members of the House Financial services committee are pushing the Federal Reserve to issue a US digital dollar in order to compete with countries like china and preserve America's status as the global reserve currency. But the central bank is hesitant and there's plenty of questions about how a digital dollar would actually work and what tangible impact it might have. So joining me now is David Maria, head of litigation and regulatory affairs at bit rex the Cryptocurrency Exchange. David, thanks so much for coming on. What could the launch of a digital dollar potentially look like? I think the launch itself. If and when it's ready to happen won't look like anything special. Uh consumers are used to using digital payments. People are doing almost all their transactions these days with Venmo Paypal and the like credit cards and a lot of people don't even carry cash at all. The better question is is what it'll look like leading up to that and how the government will make all the big decisions it needs to make in order to determine how it would structure this uh this digital currency. So there are a lot of factors that would go into that that really I think is what they're struggling with now I want to talk more about that. How ambitious is this for the Fed because I think a lot of people watching what china is doing with its own digital currency and fearing that the you met the U. S. Might be getting behind when it comes to global dominance? I mean I think without a doubt it's getting behind with regard to this aspect of it now. I think folks differ in terms of whether that matters or not. I think that's another thing that Congress and the Financial services Committee is struggling with right now. I think the views are on both sides. Some think that this will be a huge detriment to be behind. And china already launched their first digital currency. And and from from what I read with with the olympics, billions were spent using that during that time. Um it's certainly in a place like this with innovation. We don't want to be behind and it's something that you know crypto is the future and whether it's going to be a central bank backed currency like this or just currency in general uh it is important to stay up to speed now whether it will result in people adopting that the chinese yuan digital currency firstly. I don't I don't think that's a huge threat but in terms of business side we don't want to get behind. Yeah I think the whole thing with the Beijing olympics is that china wanted to force anyone traveling to china during those olympics to actually use the digital currency. And of course I think a lot of people wondering how a digital dollar might fit into the global currency ecosystem. David is there anything that you can share about that? I mean, I think one of the main benefits of Cryptocurrency is the how easy it is to transmit it across borders. Um That's one thing that that was initially a huge selling point of it and it was supposed to be there for folks who may not have access to all banking systems and it can be done quickly easily and cost effectively. So you're not paying the same fees, you would have to go to a money transmitter or to a bank to wire funds internationally or even to, you know, do any sort of special deposits where you'll be charged a fee also, what does this mean for the crypto space? Is this a positive or a negative for Bitcoin and other digital assets? I think it's a positive, it shows that it's mainstream now. If the if the U. S. Government is going to come in and determine that this is something that that they are backing and they're gonna back it with federal reserve assets, its something that shows it's not going away. And frankly, I think it'll give investors a lot more confidence who may be on the fence now to not just look at the digital assets that are backed by the government or other stable coins, but also other investments and other coins and tokens across? Well, as we wait, potentially for a digital US dollar, David, I want to ask you as the head of litigation and regulatory affairs at bit rex. What you think about regulation of the Cryptocurrency space where it's at right now, where it might be headed and what you think the best regulation might be sure. I think it's it's very timely 0.2 because last week, at the beginning of the week there was a third bill I think introduced by now. This one was out of the Senate. This would be the third one this year with the House Financial Services. I'm sorry. This was the House Ag Committee has already put out the digital commodities act. And there's another one by Senator Lomas, all of the ones that have been proposed so far are indicating that they intend to have. The CFTC is the primary regulator, which I think from uh Cryptocurrency standpoint in in our country is a good thing. It would give one federal regulator primary jurisdiction. And it would take us out of this, our current state where we are regulated by all the states where we do business as well as the Cftc and the sec. Um, so that would give clarity. It would be a step in the right direction. But there are, you know, issues within those bills also, that wouldn't provide really the total clarity that we hope for in the future. Interesting. I think we've got to leave it there, David, really good to get your take here on a very important topic. I hope you come back on the show.