St Louis Fed Now Tracks Crypto Prices on Its Research Database

The St. Louis division of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank is now tracking the prices of four cryptocurrencies in its research database.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), an extensive database maintained by the central bank's St. Louis branch, is now offering data points for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin.

The price data for the well-known and widely cited economic research database is being provided by the U.S. exchange Coinbase and is updated on a daily basis, according to the announcement. Furthermore, the database makes available the historical price data of the four assets back to as early as 2014.

The move to add crypto data is not, perhaps, entirely surprising, given that the St. Louis Federal Reserve – a center for local, national and global economic research – has never shied away from taking a focus on cryptocurrencies.

Most recently, speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus 2018 conference in May, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, raised concerns that the sheer number of cryptocurrencies these days may bring the risk of a "chaos of exchange rates" that has been seen previously in U.S. history – especially during the civil war.

The St. Louis branch has had its eyes bitcoin since as early as 2014, when its vice president, David Andolfatto, hosted a seminar on the topic and notably commented at the time that the innovation is forcing traditional institutions to either "adapt or die."

Federal Reserve image via Shutterstock