Odaily Planet Daily News Liu Xiaochun, deputy director of Shanghai New Finance Institute (SFI), and Xiao Lei, a young researcher at Shanghai Jiaotong University's China Finance Institute, wrote an article titled "Rethinking the Modern Monetary System under the Wave of Cryptocurrency", which pointed out that there have been various analyses and expectations on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the market. The 2024 US election has pushed cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to the forefront, but cryptocurrencies still face institutional difficulties in truly replacing existing sovereign currencies. Most of the innovative applications of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are essentially financial businesses. A more valuable approach to cryptocurrencies is to explore more feasible application paths in the financial field based on the functions and systems of modern currencies and the technical characteristics of cryptocurrencies. There are two main directions to start from: one is to explore the path of financial assetization that is not linked to legal tender; the other is to develop payment and settlement tools linked to legal tender. (China Finance 40 Forum)