Are we genuinely staying ahead of the curve in FinTech by blatantly ignoring Bitcoin?

Written as a City A.M. column in April 2023, the piece describes an event at The Shard on the future of FinTech and crypto regulation. Amy Lee, then Head of FinTech at the Bank of England, said the digital pound was necessary but no final decision had been made, that wallets would not be provided directly by the Bank and that holdings would initially be limited.

Nicole Sandler, then Head of Digital Policy at Barclays, supported CBDCs for financial inclusion and argued that privacy concerns were misplaced, while Andrew Whitworth of Ripple focused on cross-border payments. Asked from the audience why taxpayers’ money was being spent on a CBDC when bitcoin could help the UK become carbon negative, the panel said no decisions had been made. The column argues that bitcoin, despite making up over 50% of the crypto market, rarely had a seat at the table.