Virtual currency Financial Services. The Internet currency Flooz was created in 1999. The term "virtual currency" appears to have been coined around 2009, paralleling the development of digital currencies and social gaming. Although the correct classification is "digital currency", the U.S. government prefers and has uniformly adopted the term "virtual currency". The U.S. Treasury's FinCEN was first, followed by the FBI in 2012, the General Accounting Office in 2013, as well as the government agencies testifying at the November 2013 U.S. Senate hearing on bitcoin, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Attorney General.
Reserve currency before the beginning of the worldwide credit crunch related recession and Eurozone crisis, which harmed the euro and slowed its adoption. Since 2009, the reserve currency use of the euro has continued to drop, down to 23.9 percent in 2013. The Dutch guilder was the "de facto" reserve currency in Europe in 17th and 18th centuries. The United Kingdom's pound sterling was the primary reserve currency of much of the world in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The emergence of the USA as an economic superpower, and the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System