Fed is creating team of experts to keep track of crypto developments, Barr says

Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Michael Barr said Thursday the central bank is enhancing its supervision of cryptocurrency-related activities and is setting up a team of experts to keep track of developments in the sector. "We are creating a specialized team of experts that can help us learn from new developments and make sure we're up to date on innovation in this sector," said Barr while addressing the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. The Fed is working with other regulators to consider "whether and how certain crypto-asset activity can be conducted in a manner that is consistent with safe and sound banking." "We are also working toward providing additional clarity on our views of risks and effective risk management practices across a range of crypto-related activity," he said . While stressing the need for regulation, Barr highlighted potential public benefits of the technology underlying cryptos. "The technology could bring new functionality or efficiencies to payment systems," he said, noting that traditional payment systems can be slow and expensive. Barr ended his speech with a warning about the consequences of not regulating stablecoins. "Stablecoins have the potential to scale quickly because of network effects. An unregulated, unsupervised, deposit-like asset could create tremendous disruptions, not just for financial institutions but for people who might rely on the coin if it were to get wide adoption." Earlier, U.S. regulators warned banks of liquidity risks related to deposits from crypto firms .