Janet Yellen: US Treasury, Other Departments Will Publish Report on Money Under Biden Crypto Executive Order

The executive order has been rumored for several months.

AccessTimeIconMar 9, 2022 at 2:22 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 6:31 p.m. UTC

A presidential executive order on cryptocurrencies would "support responsible innovation" as it coordinates U.S. policy across agencies, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said late Tuesday in a statement.

In a press release dated March 9 but published on March 8, Yellen said the department's work in line with the executive order would "complement" its ongoing and existing efforts. The executive order is widely expected to be signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

"Under the executive order, Treasury will partner with interagency colleagues to produce a report on the future of money and payment systems," Yellen said. "... [B]ecause the questions raised by digital assets often have important cross-border dimensions, we’ll work with our international partners to promote robust standards and a level playing field.

Yellen said the department would also continue its work with the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which convened last year to discuss stablecoins. The group published a report in December identifying stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) as two risk areas for U.S. financial stability.

The Treasury Department has overseen a number of other efforts to discuss crypto regulations, most notably a President's Working Group for Financial Markets report on stablecoins. The report was published last year and asked Congress to pass legislation giving federal bank regulators explicit oversight jurisdiction for the stablecoin sector.

UPDATE (March 9, 2:20 UTC): The Treasury Department took down the press release shortly after publishing it. An archived version can be found here.

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Nikhilesh De

Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation. He owns marginal amounts of bitcoin and ether.