International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva has called for the regulation of cryptocurrencies over their potential risks to financial stability.

Delivering her opening speech at a conference in Seoul, South Korea, Georgieva said that high adoption of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherum could “undermine macro-financial stability," and impact the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission, capital flow management measures and fiscal sustainability.

According to a report from Reuters, she said: "Our goal is to make a more efficient, interoperable and accessible financial system by providing rules to avoid the risks of crypto, and infrastructure by leveraging some of its technologies.”

The IMF boss added that any rules would not "return us to a pre-crypto world” or “squash innovation," rather that "good rules can spur and guide innovation."

Later in the conference during a panel discussion, Georgieva praised emerging markets – India in particular – for their digital public infrastructure, and cautioned policymakers to either participate in the rule making or be left out.

Elsewhere in the world of crypto, analysts at JP Morgan have predicted that Ether will outperform Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2024.

In a note on Wednesday, analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote: "We believe that next year Ethereum will re-assert itself and recapture market share within the crypto ecosystem. The main catalyst is the EIP-4844 upgrade or Protodanksharding, which is expected to take place during the first half of 2024. We believe that this upgrade will likely prove a bigger step towards improving Ethereum network activity, thus helping Ethereum to outperform.”

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