Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has confirmed that the U.S. does not intend to ban Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.

Thursday afternoon, during the Oversight and Federal Reserve’s Pandemic Response hearing Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, confirmed that the U.S. does not intend to ban Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.

The hearing was attended by Ted Budd, a Republican from North Carolina. He questioned Powell about the current state of American inflation. Powell evaded the inflation questions by claiming that the reason for the current inflation in the United States is the repeated supply chain crises triggered by the Government’s pandemic response.

The chairman effectively stated that the Fed has no control over inflation and that it will get relief. Powell suggested that inflation should fall in the first half next year.

Ted Budd then referenced Powell’s comments about central bank digital currencies, their impact on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and his previous comments. Budd quoted Jerome Powell’s July hearing, “You wouldn’t require stable coins, but you wouldn’t have cryptocurrencies if there was a digital U.S. currency.

Budd said, “So Mr. Chairman, is it your intention ban or limit cryptocurrency use like we’re seeing here in China?”

Jerome Powell answered “No” and continued to explain why he had misspoken at that time.

Budd rephrased his question: “But you don’t intend to ban them?”

Powell replied, “No intention to ban them,” and he explained that stable coins should be included in the regulatory framework.

Many Bitcoiners find such exchanges in Congress frustrating because the Fed’s knowledge of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is lacking.

We can assume that Chairman Powell was talking about Bitcoin because of the constant grouping of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies by members of Congress and the Fed.

The regulatory perspective is that Bitcoiners and politicians still have a lot to do to accurately represent their interests and make informed decisions about whether or not to regulate Bitcoin.

In any event, the United States’ regulation Bitcoin is still an embrace for the technology. This approach, from a geopolitical standpoint, could not be more different than China’s. America’s loss is China’s gain.

Stefan Ingves (the governor of Sweden’s central banks) has not given Bitcoin much thought.

Ingves stated that private money often collapses sooner than expected at a Stockholm banking conference. Ingves said that trading in Bitcoin was a way to make money, but it is not as easy as trading in stamps.

Ingves, the governor of Sveriges Riksbank, recently stated that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are unlikely to be exempted from regulatory oversight as they grow in popularity.

Wael Makarem is a senior market strategist at Swedish trading broker Exness and believes that the Scandinavian nation views cryptocurrency’s volatility with trepidation.

He stated that investors are concerned about current volatility in Bitcoin and Ethereum. This is especially because these benchmarks have not been able to reduce losses in the past, which is often considered a sign weakness in the crypto market.

“On the other side, headlines about EU regulators moving closer to implementing new regulations regarding cryptocurrencies, anti-money laundering rules, and tax reporting requirements adds downward pressure.

Makarem said that investors are also afraid of strict rules and regulations that could restrict the adoption or use digital assets.

Europe is still skeptical about crypto

Ingves’s remarks are generally in line what other central banks have said about cryptocurrency. Gabriel Makhlouf, governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, stated that Bitcoin investors should be ready to lose all of their money in February.

He said, “Personally, I wouldn’t put my cash into it, but clearly some people think it’s a good investment.”

“People invest money in tulips to make an investment.”

Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, stated that cryptocurrency had no intrinsic value, and could crash to zero.

The cryptocurrency market has been on an upswing over the past month. Bitcoin prices have risen 73% from $29,200 on Jul 20 to $50,478 Aug 26, which has prompted Dan McDermitt (co-founder of TheChartGuys) to be cautious.

McDermitt claims that Bitcoin’s unrelenting march over the last month was due to ‘a lack of weekly consolidating’, which was an impressive progress that frustrated bears because ‘everyweek is a lower low.’

McDermitt says he expects an equilibrium pattern for the monthly timeframe, which is a pattern with higher lows than highs in tightening ranges.

McDermitt said:

“I anticipate that we will be looking for a lower high than the all-time highest, initially.” I am just looking for patterns that will shift in the short-term to allow for some weekly consolidation. This would help to cool things down a little.

McDermitt believes that to reach a new all time high, the market needs a catalyst, such as the passing of a BTC-ETF, because a run up to $65,000 will be possible ‘on the backs of very significant volume.

You can view the entire interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel. Don’t forget to Subscribe!

These views and opinions are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Cointelegraph.com. You should do your research before making any investment or trading decision.

Over the weekend, cryptocurrency reached a significant milestone when it reached a market capitalisation in the staggering $US2 trillion (or A2.7 trillion) for the first time.

CoinGecko tracks 8884 cryptocurrency coins and found that between them, they were now worth $2,108,466,906,329 ($A2.8 trillion) at time of writing.

This means that the total value of all 8884 cryptocurrency types is more than $2 trillion.

This is an incredible achievement, considering bitcoin launched in 2009 as the first decentralised cryptocurrency. It was launched with just one coin.

This is not the first time that digital currency has surpassed $2 trillion. It reached the 12-digit mark in April, just before it plunged dramatically.

Bitcoin is responsible for a large portion of cryptocurrency’s market capital. It surged to its highest level since May, when it reached its all-time high.

Bitcoin was worth $48,152 (A65,439), but it fell to $47,526 (A64,639) Monday.

Its market capitalization is $US894 trillion ($A1.2 Trillion). This makes it less than half of all cryptocurrency’s total value.

Major players in digital coin world

There are over 8000 different types of cryptocurrency available on the market. Other than bitcoin, there are many other cryptocurrency that have contributed significantly to the $US2 Trillion market capitalisation.

Ethereum is the second-most valuable crypto token. It’s worth $US3290 (A4484) per coin and has a market capitalisation $US387 billion (A526 billion) as of this writing.

Ethereum was first traded in 2015, with one coin that had a value of $A3.76.

Cardano is the third most valuable cryptocurrency.

Cardano rose by 47% in the past week.

According to CoinGecko, during the same time period, binance coin rose 14 percent, XRP rose 61%, and dogecoin rose 18%.

This is the second consecutive time that crypto has surpassed the $US2 trillion mark.

It seems to have held so far, and was well into the trillions mid-Monday.

The crypto market cap reached $US2.02 Trillion on April 6, 2018.

Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $US50,000 (A68,000) on May 16.

However, prices began to fall after that.