Cryptocurrencies are not an asset like gold, says Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

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encryption It should be viewed as its own asset class and not combined with it gold (GC=f) as is often the case, according to the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary Daly.

“I see cryptocurrencies as a complex thing, and the service we need to provide to everyone is to actually clarify what we mean and call it what it is once we do that,” Daly said on Yahoo Finance. Open the bid Podcast (see video above or He listens less). “It could be a currency. It could be a medium of exchange. … It could be a stock — an asset that holds value or sometimes loses value. We just have to define those terms.”

“So I don’t think it’s like gold,” Daly added. “It has properties like gold sometimes, but I don’t think of it that way.”

Daly’s assessment differed slightly from the Fed Chairman’s assessment Jerome Powellwho energized the cryptocurrency community earlier this month with his comments about Bitcoin (Bitcoin = F).

“People use bitcoin as a speculative asset,” Powell said at the New York Times DealBook conference. “It’s just like gold, only virtual, it’s digital. People don’t use it as a means of payment or a store of value. It’s very volatile. It’s not a competitor to the dollar, it’s really a competitor to gold.”

Daly echoed Powell’s view that cryptocurrencies are not yet ready for currency status, as some cryptocurrency bulls say is guaranteed at this point in their life cycle.

“The ownership you need is to grow as the economy grows,” Daly explained. “So its value doesn’t change just because people want it. So when more people want a dollar bill, the value of the dollar bill doesn’t go up. What causes the dollar to fluctuate is the economy and how fast we are growing relative to the dollar.” Other countries, so you have to master this feature in order for it to become a currency.”

While it appears that cryptocurrencies are still a long way from being stamped as currency by Congress, it has not stopped the momentum behind the bullish trade in various digital assets.

Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, has continued to outperform since the election of Donald Trump on November 5, breaching the US$100,000 level. The first time was on December 4th. Bitcoin prices are up 38% since Election Day and are 106% higher this year.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks like Coinbase (currency(And Robin Hood)Capture) has rose 45% and 204% respectively since the beginning of the year.

The warm sentiment toward cryptocurrencies also includes recent investments from entities that typically prefer traditional stock and bond options. In May, a Wisconsin retirement fund added bitcoin to its holdings by purchasing more than $160 million in shares of two new funds that were approved by regulators earlier this year.

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