In an interview with Chainalysis Chief Executive Officer Michael Gronager at a conference held by the blockchain analytics business in New York on Friday, Bank of America COO Tom Montag shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency.
Montag is also a member of Bank of America’s executive management team and president of the company’s Global Banking and Markets division. He is in charge of all of the enterprises that serve businesses and institutional investors.
Not a competition
He compared cryptocurrency to derivatives in their early stages. He also acknowledged to not knowing what stablecoins are.
“I don’t get it as well as everyone else in the room… Is stablecoin actually backed by a dollar?”
The Bank of America CEO isn’t the only one who sees cryptocurrency as an asset class. In May, rival investment giant Goldman Sachs declared bitcoin to be an investable asset.
In July, JPMorgan indicated that many of its clients saw cryptocurrency as an asset class in which they wish to invest.
The value of cryptocurrencies
According to Montag, he just saw how valuable crypto could be as a repository of value. When it comes to whether bitcoin is a store of wealth, he remarked, “It’s hard to comprehend the relevance of that as an American when you’re used to having a stable currency.”
“It will be inevitable, but it will be great,” he said of the Federal Reserve introducing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, stated in September that the Fed is evaluating whether or not to issue a CBDC and, if so, in what form.
