Fed governor tells bankers DeFi is ‘nothing to be afraid of’

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller urged policymakers and bankers to stop fearing DeFi and stablecoins, saying they will drive the next wave of innovation in the US payments system.

US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told his peers and the private banking sector that there’s “nothing to be afraid of” about crypto payments despite it operating outside the traditional banking system.

“There is nothing scary about this just because it occurs in the decentralized finance or DeFi world — this is simply new technology to transfer objects and record transactions,” he said during a speech at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 on Wednesday.

Leveraging innovative tech to build new payment services isn’t a “new story,” Waller said as he pitched policymakers and the private banking sector to work together on crypto payment infrastructure. “There is nothing to be afraid of when thinking about using smart contracts, tokenization, or distributed ledgers in everyday transactions.”

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