in television interview Conducted today on CNBC to talk about the bitcoin price reaching $50,000, Mr. Jim Bullard, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, stated that bitcoin is more like gold than a currency, which is not important to him.

He added:

As for Fed policy, the economy will be in dollars as far as the eye can see.

And a global economy in dollars as far as the eye can see, too.

And whether the price of gold is going to go up or down or the price of bitcoin is going to go up or down doesn’t really matter.

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The St. Louis Federal Reserve is one of 12 Federal Reserve banks whose chiefs help inform the monetary policy of the US central banking system.

Pollard has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis since 2008, and was reappointed for another five years in January.

In 2014, The Economist ranked him as the seventh most influential economist in the world.

According to “Bullard”, Bitcoin, like gold, will be ignored, as has happened with gold over the past half century, and he explained by saying:

The price of gold has moved up and down since the 1970s and 1980s, and this has not affected the Fed’s policy.

Bullard sees Bitcoin as a competitor to gold, but it does not seem to be threatened by it because the volatility of Bitcoin prices makes it undesirable as a medium of exchange. He said in this regard:

There is already competition in currencies globally…

They have to abide by all the same restrictions that we all do to try and run a currency system.

You must have stability about the future supply, and you must have a stable value against other commodities and against other currencies.

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And special currencies do not.

He noted sarcastically:

This is just part of the normal centuries-old coin competition.

The dollar will come first.

Bullard is not wrong about the current volatility in bitcoin prices.

Last month, with the bitcoin price hovering around $32,000, volatility was at its highest level since March 2020, when the bitcoin price rapidly dropped to the $4,000 level.

The price has since risen to $50,000.

But historical fluctuations do not necessarily mean permanent fluctuations.

Last week, Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, said:

If electric car maker Tesla starts accepting bitcoin (as it plans to do) and doesn’t immediately convert the asset into dollars (as it was said it might), we’ll start hacking into the fiat system.

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According to Pollard, investors do not want a store of value or a means of exchange, but rather both. He stated:

Investors want a safe haven, they want a stable store of value.

And then they want to make their investments in that currency.

It will be very difficult to get a special coin.

Bitcoin is in fact like gold, and it could play its role, so I don’t think that is where we will see any future changes.

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