The Federal Reserve is planning a payment innovation conference on 21 October, with DeFi, stablecoins and tokenization taking center stage, alongside AI. The big question is whether the reference to “tokenization” includes the tokenization of central bank reserves for institutional usage. Technically, the Fed does not consider this a wholesale CBDC, but the White House Digital Assets paper proposed an aggressive stance towards any kind of CBDC engagement.
Individual Federal Reserve banks have hosted similar conferences, such as the New York Fed event held in April this year. The Comptroller of the Currency has held at least two events on tokenization.
This focus on emerging payment technologies comes despite the Fed’s limited formal role in recent digital asset policy development. The Federal Reserve was excluded from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, although it was consulted regarding the publication of the working group’s report. While the Fed has a role in the GENIUS Act for stablecoins, it is somewhat limited.
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