Crypto

Is the US dollar the world’s most successful cryptocurrency?

Published

1 month ago

January 22, 2026

Is the US dollar the world’s most successful cryptocurrency?

The U.S. dollar, to be clear, is not a cryptocurrency. But for many people, it is doing the job that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were originally intended to fill. To understand what is going on, and why the implications are so important for the global economy, it is worth going back to some of the original visions of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin got its start, back in 2008, during the dark days of the global financial crisis. At that time, the U.S. government, among many others, was bailing out banks and financial companies and “printing money” to strengthen the economy. While central banks like the Federal Reserve were not, literally, printing money and throwing it out of helicopters to people, they were doing some quite extraordinary things in the name of “quantitative easing.”

The idea behind quantitative easing (or “helicopter money”) was that central banks could inject confidence into the economy by, in effect, promising to buy just about any kind of financial asset if you had trouble selling it. And at that moment, the catalog of unsaleable assets ran to hundreds of billions of dollars.

With the benefit of hindsight, this looks like a good decision when the alternative was a repeat of the Great Depression. At the time, it looked both unfair and risky to many bystanders. Unfair because taxpayer money was being used to buy assets from people who probably deserved to go bankrupt in normal circumstances. And risky because printing so much money, in normal times, is recipe for higher inflation.

Bitcoin was deliberately designed, from the ground up, to make both of these options impossible. The strict release schedule for Bitcoin and the absolute limit of 21 million Bitcoins being issued meant that there was no way to “bail out” bad lenders or debase the value of the currency by issuing too much. The Bitcoin white paper specifically talks about resistance to corruption, and the Bitcoin network itself contains a reference to bank bailouts in the genesis block.

In the end, there was no hyperinflation in the major economies that practiced some form of quantitative easing, such as the U.S., U.K., and EU. However, hundreds of millions of people do live in countries with high inflation rates, and in the case of a few countries, are facing actual hyperinflation. For those people, Bitcoin should be especially appealing.

So it is all the more surprising to find that, 15 years since the end of the Great Recession, it is the U.S. dollar, not Bitcoin, that is the preferred choice of millions of people in emerging markets.

The appeal, for many of these people, is that to them, the U.S. dollar looks like an ideal stable, corruption-free digital asset. It’s extremely well known. It’s backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and people have been using the dollar as a “safe haven” in periods of risk for decades.

American power, the huge range of American brands, and the vast reach of American culture have made the U.S. dollar the best-known currency in the entire world. When someone says, “the buck stops here” or refers to the “greenback,” we all know what they’re talking about. And, if you live far from the U.S. and don’t pay much attention to U.S. politics, then compared to your own currency, the U.S. dollar may well look very safe indeed.

Most of this situation has, in fact, been generally the case for decades. There are billions of U.S. dollars circulating around the world in cash, but for most people, that’s not a very safe or secure option. What has changed recently, however, is the ability of just about anyone anywhere to get access and hold dollars digitally.

Cryptocurrencies made it possible for anyone to have digital assets in a private, personal wallet, but few people had the technical knowledge or access to make this possible early on. More recently, cheap smartphones, better wallet software and, most importantly, stablecoins have recently made it possible for anyone, anywhere, to have what is, for all practical purposes, a U.S. dollar-denominated bank account. They see it as a safer alternative to their own currency, something easier to understand than crypto, and very preferable to carrying around U.S. dollars in cash.

And for many of those people, they don’t even realize they are using cryptocurrency infrastructure. Opera Mini Pay is one of the world’s most popular digital wallets and is a good example of what’s ahead. People all around the world can buy, sell and transact in U.S. dollars. And even though Opera Mini Pay runs on top of the Ethereum Layer 2 network CELO, all the fees and other services can be paid in U.S. dollars. No need to know anything at all about crypto.

The result is that even as crypto has laid down the path, when it comes to currencies, the overwhelming brand of the almighty U.S. dollar has ended up filling the gap Bitcoin brought to everyone’s attention.

Paul Brody is the Global Blockchain Leader for EY (Ernst & Young). He is also the chairman of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and the author of the book Ethereum for Business.

Note: These are the personal views of the author and do not represent the views of EY.

Related Topics:Bitcoin cryptocurrency currency dollars essays United Airlines

Click to comment

Crypto

The rise of Polymarket, the cryptocurrency-based betting site for current events

Published

3 hours ago

February 21, 2026

Press Room

The rise of Polymarket, the cryptocurrency-based betting site for current events

Will the United States strike Iran? Who will win the Super Bowl? The Oscars? The municipal elections in Paris? These uncertainties can pay off big on Polymarket. With a rather austere appearance, the American website presents thousands of questions, allowing bettors to wager on the outcome of current events and collect winnings if they choose correctly.

In the United States, such prediction market platforms are booming. In November 2025, the volume of bets on Polymarket and Kalshi, the two leaders in the sector, was estimated at nearly $13 billion (€10.9 billion). By early 2026, Polymarket has claimed tens of millions of visitors and hundreds of thousands of active traders.

Molly White, a researcher and engineer from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, described “a powerful trend” in the United States, “where everything becomes an excuse for gambling.” Nikos Smyrnaios, a professor of social sciences at the University of Toulouse, added that there are issues raised by “risk speculation,” which he described as characterized by “a total absence of ethics.”

You have 82.93% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.

Crypto

Gianni Infantino says FIFA may launch its own cryptocurrency

Published

15 hours ago

February 21, 2026

Press Room

Gianni Infantino says FIFA may launch its own cryptocurrency

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said his organization is studying the possibility of launching its own cryptocurrency.

This week, Infantino appeared at the World Liberty Forum hosted at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The event was attended by heavyweights in the finance industry including bankers, crypto executives, U.S. senators and celebrities like Nicki Minaj and Kevin O’Leary.

The president’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were among the hosts of the event, which was also a showcase for the Trump family’s crypto initiative World Liberty Financial.

Infantino posted a recap of his appearance on Instagram, touting FIFA’s AI initiatives ahead of the 2026 World Cup that will “drive fan engagement, improve fan experiences, elevate global media distribution and broadcast, provide the 48 participating teams with additional match data, and further support the officiating of the 104 matches.”

The FIFA president also mooted the idea of global soccer’s governing body launching its very own crypto venture.

“We are also studying the development of a FIFA token and a FIFA coin — a real potential global currency serving 6 billion football fans worldwide,” he said.

Following his appearance at the World Liberty Forum, Infantino headed to Washington, D.C. where he was in attendance as Trump convened the first meeting of his Board of Peace.

At the meeting, Infantino announced FIFA was planning a $70 million investment in Gaza to help rebuild the war-torn region.

The global governing body said it plans to build “a complete football ecosystem” including mini pitches, full-sized pitches, and academy and a national stadium.

Crypto

Bitcoin ATM warning signs reduced crypto crimes 90% in Outagamie County, detective says

Published

1 day ago

February 20, 2026

Press Room

Bitcoin ATM warning signs reduced crypto crimes 90% in Outagamie County, detective says

APPLETON, Wis. (WBAY) — Last year, victims in Wisconsin reported losing $43 million to cryptocurrency scams.

In a Consumer First Alert, we talked with a detective on the frontlines investigating crypto crimes happening in our neighborhoods.

How scammers target victims unfamiliar with cryptocurrency

We’ve been sharing victims’ scam stories.

“I was shaking. I was crying. I was inconsolable. I couldn’t believe what I had just done,” said Beth, a Fox Valley woman who exposed the scam that started with a computer pop-up warning and led her to a Bitcoin machine in January.

“So I started putting the money in, and putting the money in…and putting money in. Stopped, show my license, put the money in again,” Beth said.

Most victims of this growing crypto crime are like Beth, who asked us not to use her last name.

“Never saw a Bitcoin machine before, had no idea,” she said.

But investigators say scammers are convincing.

“We’ve had uniformed officers and detectives even trying to intercept these individuals while they’re at the machines, and the victims will still be adamant that it’s real and will not listen to our officers,” said Sgt. Sheldon Pedranzan with the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office.

A Consumer First Alert on about cryptocurrency scams.

Crime exceeds bank robberies

With more Bitcoin kiosks showing up in gas stations and stores, Pedranzan has seen scams escalate.

“It used to be bank robberies were the biggest crime in the world. Bigger than bank robberies at this point,” he said.

“This is one that we definitely are not immune to in Northeast Wisconsin. Globally there’s been about $158 billion worth of illicit digital asset funds. But then in the U.S., there’s been 4.8 billion that are due to cryptocurrency scams. And then even in Wisconsin, it was $43 million even in a year for victims that have lost money within the crypto world because of these scams,” Pedranzan said.

“I’ve had some victims that have lost close to a million dollars in some of these scams,” Pedranzan said.

Time is critical for cryptocurrency crime investigations

Pedranzan says when a scammer directs a victim to deposit cash into a crypto ATM, time is critical.

“Time is of the essence, really, for these cases. Prior to a couple of years ago, we were unable to do anything for our victims,” Pedranzan said.

“Once it is sent off into, we will call it ‘Crypto Land,’ these criminal organizations are very good at what they do, and they begin to launder the money,” he said.

New technology helps track stolen cryptocurrency

But now with a crypto crime fighting tool new to Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department, Pedranzan shows how they track the funds scammers steal.

“You can see just how many transactions will occur in a very short amount of time,” he said.

“This is a great visual to kind of show just how quickly the funds move and what they’re doing with them,” Pedranzan said.

“So the software that we are able to utilize, which is a blockchain analysis tool, it assists us in being able to recognize some of these patterns and to be able to plot it down into a map so it makes sense, not only for our sake as far as the investigator to be able to follow, but ultimately at some point if we are successful in recovering some of these funds, we also have to be able to show that to, you know, a judge or the district attorney’s office that can process this and get them to understand it, because a lot of people aren’t familiar with the digital asset world,” Pedranzan said.

Without revealing investigative techniques, he explains the challenge.

“If I’m chasing $10,000, and now all of a sudden they’re putting maybe 3,000 will take a direction, start spider webbing off over here, then I have to follow another 2,000 and then it just keeps either splitting,” he said.

He says most money moves overseas, making these crimes difficult to track and prosecute.

“To actually locate each individual transaction is where you have to go through and do all the hard work,” Pedranzan said.

Quick reporting leads to recovery success

But quick reporting by victims, as in Beth’s case, makes her one of the lucky ones.

“I said, ‘Call the police,’” Beth said.

“We are able to basically follow it very quickly and get ahead of it to be able to recover those funds. So time really matters. And also for these ATM companies, there is some liability on their side,” Pedranzan said.

“The reality is these ATMs do profit off of even the victims. They want to deter it, but they don’t necessarily want to draw attention to it,” he said.

Warning signs reduce crypto scams by 90%

The sheriff’s department is drawing attention to the scams with warning signs at Bitcoin ATMs in the county.

“We approached pretty much every business or gas station in the area that had some of these ATMs and asked if we could place additional placards on,” Pedranzan said.

It’s made a difference.

“We now have probably reduced the number of these cases by probably 90%,” he said.

“Or it gets them just enough of a pause to kind of get them to second-guess it and to think whether or not this is something they should be doing,”

Sergeant Pedranzan encourages people to be cautious and report these crypto crimes immediately.

“Some of these, really, the stars have to align before we can even potentially recover the money for them. So step one is just reporting it and seeing if there is something that we can take action on and potentially get that money back for them,” Pedranzan said.

If you think you’ve been scammed or need information, call the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office at (920) 832-5000.

Consumer First Alert’s report on counterfeit Pokémon cards will be featured on national TV, on Friday’s InvestigateTV+ at 3:30 on WBAY-TV.