Cryptocurrency prices were lower on Wednesday, even as International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde urged central banks to look into issuing digital currencies.
Lagarde said central banks need to “fill the void left by the decline of cash.”
“Various central banks around the world are seriously considering these ideas,” Lagarde said in Singapore on Wednesday. “While the case for digital currency is not universal, we should investigate it further, seriously, carefully and creatively.
Some central banks, including the Bank of Canada and the People’s Bank of China, are already considering issuing digital coins to the public. Sweden’s Riksbank is starting a pilot project next year to develop a virtual currency.
Others are split on the idea or have no intention of issuing alternative currencies.
At the moment digital currencies are only issued to banks. If issued to the public, it could challenge current banking systems and the threaten the price stability of current digital coins.
Bitcoin dipped 1.71% to a two-week low of $6,353.30 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:35 AM ET (13:35 GMT).
Cryptocurrencies overall were lower with the total coin market capitalization at $205 billion at the time of writing, compared to $212 billion on Tuesday.
Ethereum, or Ether, decreased 1.29% to $211.12 and Litecoin was at $49.342, down 3.80%, while XRP slumped 5.26% to $0.50239.