RBA Governor Michele Bullock said he has not seen how Bitcoin can play a key role in Australia’s payment system and economy.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michelle Bullock has rejected the idea of establishing Bitcoin as a strategic preparation.
During a recent Congressional investigation hearing, the governor said Bitcoin could not serve as a backup.
“Why? Going back to the same point, it doesn’t serve the purpose of money,” she told the Standing Committee on Economics.
“There are no solid values. We can’t guarantee that what we are today is the same value tomorrow.”
Additionally, Bullock said Bitcoin is “very slow” compared to other payment methods.
She explained that people can get transactions in milliseconds with other payment systems.
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However, things are uncertain with Bitcoin. It may take 10-15 minutes, so it may take even longer depending on the ledger mechanism.
“I don’t think there’s an infrastructure that will be a payment system,” Brock said.
“It’s not a valuable store, people see it as an asset.
“Personally, I don’t think it plays a role when going to a local pizza shop or going to buy some groceries.”
At the same time, the governor said the RBA did not consider whether the RBA was “established” over other types of cryptocurrency.
“I don’t think the RBA, as an organization, has any opinions on what to do with Bitcoin or what to do with these meme coins,” she said.
“Some people find that they have something to do with them, but they’re not at the core of the payment system.”
Australia’s Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock will speak at the Monetary Policy Making Media Conference held in Sydney, Australia on February 18, 2025. David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
RBAs have less power than crypto
Committee members raised the issue that about 30% of Australians under the age of 27 were investing in crypto.
Pointing to the recent collapse of Argentina’s Meme Coin $Libra, he asked whether regulators like the RBA could do anything to protect people’s crypto investments.
In response, Bullock said that it is not the role of the Reserve Bank.
“There’s no power in these areas. We don’t regulate consumer safety or investment or anything like that,” she said.
“This is an issue with ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission), and we will also propose Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center.”
Meanwhile, RBA Governor Brad Jones said the government has expressed its desire to implement regulatory measures in several areas.
“The first is to regulate digital exchanges, and potentially a stubcoin licensing regime, and there could be a co-supervisory between APRA (the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority) and ASIC, depending on the size of the stable coin that is potentially possible,” he said.
Establishment of Bitcoin Reserve in the United States
In related developments, the US has set up a strategic Bitcoin sanctuary that works similarly to the country’s gold reserves, following Trump’s executive order on March 6th.
The Trump administration also said it is seeking ways to invest and utilize its 200,000 Bitcoin token stockpiles under government ownership.
The current value of these tokens is US$17 billion ($26.9 billion) and was acquired through criminal confiscation.
“I think the best way to maintain that value is to store these Bitcoins for the long term,” said David Sacks, special advisor to AI and Crypto.
“Bitcoin has often been called digital gold. What we do in our reserves is effectively creating digital Fort Knox to protect digital gold.”
