The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently acknowledged in an official publication that digitalization has given rise to new financial instruments and digital assets designed for payments and value storage.
Until now, the dominant perception of cryptocurrencies has largely been that of speculative assets. But with an institution like the IMF openly referring to them as “stores of value,” it feels like digital assets are starting to gain a level of legitimacy once reserved for traditional currencies.
In recent months, we’ve seen an uptick in real-world use cases—from tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) gaining traction in the U.S. to Japanese real estate firms accepting XRP, SOL, and DOGE for property purchases. The IMF’s recognition comes at a time when cryptocurrencies are clearly shifting from experimental tech to tools with practical utility in real economies.
Of course, the IMF is still framing this shift within the context of “safe digitalization,” likely with CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) in mind. But even so, the fact that they chose to highlight the store-of-value function speaks volumes.
Maybe we’re no longer just talking about crypto as an investment class.
Maybe we’re witnessing the early stages of a new blueprint for what money can be.
