Dollar Loses to Digital Currencies in 2023, Former Russian President Medvedev Says

Digital fiat currencies will spread next year while the U.S. dollar will be losing its status of global reserve currency, according to Russia’s former head of state. In a string of tweets, Dmitry Medvedev gave his two cents on what the future holds for the world, a “humble contribution,” as he put it, to the “wildest predictions” ahead of New Year’s Eve.

Medvedev Sees World Bank Crashing, Musk in the White House and Expensive Oil

The Bretton Woods monetary system will collapse next year causing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to crash, according to the man who was at the helm of Russia for four years between two of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms.

“Euro and dollar will stop circulating as the global reserve currencies. Digital fiat currencies will be actively used instead” while “all the largest stock markets and financial activity will leave the U.S. and Europe and move to Asia,” Dmitry Medvedev stated on social media.

Through a series of posts in a humorous tone this week, he gave his thoughts on what could happen in 2023. “On the New Year’s Eve, everybody’s into making predictions. Many come up with futuristic hypotheses, as if competing to single out the wildest, and even the most absurd ones. Here’s our humble contribution,” the leader of the ruling United Russia party tweeted on Monday.

Medvedev went on to forecast that oil prices will reach $150 a barrel and natural gas will top $5,000. He also expects the EU to collapse after the United Kingdom rejoins the bloc, and the euro to fall out of use. In a divided Europe, France and Germany will clash while Hungary and Poland will occupy parts of Western Ukraine, he added.

The Russian government official, now serving as Deputy Chairman of the country’s Security Council, sees California as an independent state and Texas leaving the U.S. to form an alliance with Mexico. “Elon Musk’ll win the presidential election in a number of states which, after the new Civil War’s end, will have been given to the GOP,” he wrote.

Dmitry Medvedev, who was also Russia’s prime minister between 2012 and 2020, and is regarded as a more liberal politician than Putin, has been quite active on social media since Moscow attacked Ukraine in late February. The military invasion was met with waves of Western sanctions. Days after the war started, he posted that Russia may “nationalize” foreign assets in response to the penalties.

Throughout the outgoing year, Russian authorities have been working to expand the legal framework for digital assets and regulate cryptocurrencies, in particular their use for cross-border settlements amid financial restrictions. While the Bank of Russia, which is developing its own digital ruble, proposed a blanket ban on crypto transactions in the country, Medvedev told Russian media in January that a prohibition could have the opposite effect.

Do you think any of Dmitry Medvedev’s predictions for 2023 could come true? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

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