Digitalization, Forms of Money, and the Changing Morphology of the Monetary and Credit System

Among the diverse impacts of digital technologies, one of the most significant concerns their repercussions on the evolution of payment systems. Consequently, the methods by which value is stored, recorded, and transferred, as well as the manner in which transactions are conducted, areundergoing accelerated transformation. Several recent developments merit particular attention. On one hand, numerous economies have witnessed an intensification of pre-existing trends toward the reduction of cash usage in transactional activities. On the other hand, the emergence of the crypto ecosystem presents substantial opportunities alongside significant challenges and risks.A pertinent question in this regard is whether these shifts in the payment landscape—which involve the rise of new actors, markets, and potential institutional arrangements—entail more profound changes in the operational logic of the monetary and credit systems. This is the central inquiry of the present study, which examines how these developments interact with the established monetary and financial system, the policy responses and initiatives of regulatory authorities (e.g., CBDC, Fast Payment Systems, and the impetus toward tokenization), and the eventual consequences for the morphology of money and credit as they are currently understood.