Fed Chairman meets Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and former House Speaker on May 3, 2021

Before the Federal Reserve announced it would release a document on central bank digital currencies, Chairman Jerome Powell met with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

According to Powell’s schedule published on Friday, the Fed chairman held a 30-minute meeting with Armstrong and former House Speaker Paul Ryan on May 11th. Beginning of 2019 and is now with the private equity company Solamere Capital.

While Powell’s schedule didn’t reveal the issues discussed, Armstrong mentioned the meeting on a Twitter thread on May 14th. Coinbase CEO speak His goal in speaking with members of Congress and heads of various federal agencies was to answer questions from lawmakers about cryptocurrencies and to gain a better understanding of public regulatory technology in the United States.

Back then, Armstrong Arm speak He voiced his opinion on China’s central bank digital currency, the CBDC, saying that he believes it will pose “a threat to the state of the US reserve currency” if the US fails to create its currency quickly. More than a week later, Powell announced that the Fed would be conducting research into the implementation of a CBDC.

Connected: China and the US need to learn from each other and work together in the CBDC

Prior to making this announcement, the Fed chairman spoke at length about the impact of the CBDC emission in the United States, saying he felt it was more important “to do the right thing than to do it first.” However, his May statement planned to release a document on CBDCs and digital payments this summer.

While the U.S. government has yet to make a decision regarding the digital dollar, China continues to pilot its CBDC with giveaway programs in many provinces. Last month, 100,000 people in the Shenzhen area received $ 31 million worth of digital yuan and exchanged their digital assets for fiat at ATMs.

Cointelegraph has requested a comment from the Federal Reserve but has received no response at the time of publication.