Yellen Set to Give First Speech About Crypto

According to multiple media reports Tuesday (April 5), Yellen will speak Thursday (April 7) at 10:30 a.m. at American University in Washington, D.C.

“Secretary Yellen will make the case for a consistent and comprehensive policy framework that promotes responsible innovation of digital assets and appropriately assesses and mitigates the risks they may pose,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Yellen has been a frequent critic of crypto due to what she called its “malign uses” by bad actors and terrorists during her confirmation, although she has maintained it does have the potential to better the financial system.

Read more: Yellen Changes Tune on Crypto, Moves Dial on Regulatory Debate

Her stance also seems to have softened in recent months. In an interview last month with CNBC, she said cryptocurrencies now play a major role in America’s financial decision-making, although that role has little to do with payments.

“Crypto has obviously grown by leaps and bounds,” she said. “And it’s now playing a significant role, not really so much in transactions, but in investment decisions of lots of Americans.”

Other than acknowledging bitcoin’s move into the investing mainstream thanks to institutional investors and large financial institutions, there was a marked change in tone by the Treasury secretary when she was asked “where we are in the crypto conversation.”

Asked about her previous views during the interview, Yellen told CNBC, “I have a little bit of skepticism,” citing “valid concerns” about its impact on financial stability, consumer and investor protection, not to mention its role in “illicit transactions.”

The important word there is “little” — a change that came in the wake of President Biden’s March 10 executive order calling for the rapid cross-agency establisment of a single, cohesive policy on cryptocurrency and a regulatory framework to go with it.