IMF global financial stability report sees complex roles for cryptocurrency, DeFi By Cointelegraph

According to the International Monetary Fund’s Global Financial Stability report released Tuesday, the war in Ukraine — following hard on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic — has led to a tightening of global financial conditions. Rapid changes in fintech and the uses and misuses of cryptocurrency play into the jumble of challenges facing the global economy.

According to the report, the pandemic and war have led to an accelerated “cryptoization” in emerging markets due to increased speculative interest during the pandemic and then attempts to evade sanctions. Given compliance within the crypto industry, the use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions is impractical, the report found. The use of mixers, decentralized exchanges and privacy coins may allow some circumvention, but it would be restricted by limited liquidity.