Annyeong haseyo!

I have been looking forward to visiting Korea as Managing Director of the IMF for quite some time and am delighted it is taking place when I can join the important discussions on digital currency that will take place during this conference. My deepest gratitude goes to Deputy Prime Minister Choo, FSC Vice-Chairman Kim, and my dear friend Chang Yong—Governor Rhee—with whom I worked closely at the IMF.

As in old times when guests arrived from distant lands and huddled around a roaring fire, allow me to tell you a story.

It is a story of past, future, and present. It is a story of innovators and lawbreakers, of risks and opportunity. It is the story of crypto and blockchain.

We begin with what feels like the dusty Wild West of American history.

Most crypto assets arrived on the financial scene “unbacked” or “poorly-backed” — lacking intrinsic value and suffering from price volatility. Some of them collapsed because of reliance on shaky reserves.

Crypto assets were really risky assets—many households have the scars to prove it. They lost real money. Lots of it.

The Wild West was a tough place. With few sheriffs around, and limited legislation and regulation, it was a land of crashes and criminals. Money laundering and other illicit activity has been estimated in the tens of billions of dollars per year.

Just last month, the founder of Binance, the world’s largest crypto currency exchange, pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering—right after the founder of FTX, a prominent exchange that crashed, was convicted of fraud and other crimes.

Put simply, in the past 15 years, the crypto industry has not built a glorious reputation. Nor is it out of the woods.

Where might it go? Let’s look towards the future.

We must consider the effects if crypto assets became widespread. The scenario is not farfetched.

For one, crypto assets are not going away. Bitcoin is trading at its highest value since April 2022. The crypto market cap........

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