to add one final point. what do you think of when you hear the following? this technology “ …. is really good for humanity and it ’ s ultimately a win for each and every one of us. … every person, every family, and every business will experience more liberty, more freedom, more opportunities, more abundance, more power, and more wealth. ” the author, ceo of a us ( united states ) investment firm, was referring here to decentralised finance. but did we not already hear such – i would almost like to say “ promises of miracle cures ” – 25 years ago about the opportunities of the internet? the point i would like to make is this : the internet originally promised a decentralised form of free and equal communication between sovereign individuals. today, much is concentrated in the hands of a few bigtech firms. they are skilled at amassing and monetising rich volumes of data. as gatekeepers, they also determine who gets access to the platforms and who is denied it. with the proposed digital services act and digital markets act, [ 5 ] european legislators are now trying to clamp down on gatekeepers and enable more competition, data protection and consumer protection. in doing so, they have sent an important signal – also internationally. decentralised finance, bitcoins, ethereum and the like are also not as decentralised, free and equal as some all too eagerly proclaim. for example, a study by the national bureau of economic research has shown how the bitcoin ecosystem is dominated by large and concentrated players, be they miners, investors or intermediaries. at the same time, the vast majority of users continue to rely on intermediaries in order to use decentralised finance ( defi ( decentralised finance ) ) or purchase crypto - assets. they are just different ones to before! if we do not want to leave the huge potential that can lie in the use of crypto - tokens and stablecoins in the hands of the few, we must therefore act swiftly. first, there is a need for adapted regulation and supervision. the planned eu ( european union ) markets in crypto - assets ( mica ( markets in crypto assets ) ) regulation provides a sound initial basis for this. ms rodolphe explained bafin ( bundesanstalt fur finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht ) ’ s approach defi ( decentralised finance )

. and inflation is increasingly demand - driven. core inflation, as measured by the hicp excluding energy and food, has risen to 5. 7 % in march. this was the highest figure ever and the fourth consecutive record high. on the topic of core inflation, central bankers are sometimes asked pointedly whether they neither eat nor heat. but rest assured : they do both. of course, the ecb does not target core inflation. its 2 % target relates to the headline rate of inflation. but looking only at the current headline rate could cause us to jump to conclusions. core inflation measures provide valuable information about the underlying inflation trend as they separate signals from noise. 1 they hint at where headline inflation will settle in the medium term. and therefore it is advisable to pay attention to core inflation. 3 the reaction of monetary policy when it became evident that the inflation surge was more persistent than initially thought, policymakers reacted decisively. after several years of ultra - loose monetary policy, the ecb governing council changed its course radically. we stopped purchasing additional assets. in the space of just eight months, we increased policy rates by 350 basis points. the relevant policy rate, which currently is the deposit facility rate, is now at 3 %. we created the transmission protection instrument ( tpi ), an instrument to support the effective transmission of monetary policy. the tpi can be activated in the event that the yields on government bonds diverge too greatly, if this divergence is not fundamentally justified, and if this is endangering price stability. its activation would be aimed to ensure that the monetary policy stance is transmitted smoothly across the euro area. and we have started to shrink our balance sheet. last month, we stopped fully reinvesting maturing securities bought under the asset purchase programme ( app ). from march until june, this will lead to an initial decline in our app portfolio by €15 billion per month. it is clear that the monetary policy measures still have some way to go for their full effect on inflation to unfold. to give you an idea : about a month ago, we estimated the extent to which the current tightening is already being reflected in some key variables. 2 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches while we can assume that the measures have been passed through in full to money and capital market rates, the estimated share for loan rates is roughly 80 %. regarding the loan volume, the degree of pass - through is about 40 %, while pass - through to gdp