"It would be a mistake to leave the Fed with a weak role of stablecoins."

- Jerome Powell, June 21, 2023

On the longest day of the year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell took to the podium to testify before Congress and the House Financial Services Committee. Last week, the Powell-led central bank had decided to temporarily pause rate hikes — the fastest and most aggressive interest rate increases in U.S. history — in their mission to battle the massive price inflation found downstream from the lockdown-induced monetary inflation via stimulus measures. Less than a month away from the announced July launch of FedNow, an inter-bank communication platform, Powell finds himself at a crossroad of monetary policy, regulation and capital requirements before the formal founding of the digital dollar system.