Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau on Tuesday compared speculation around bitcoin to "
tulipomania
" in the Netherlands in the 17th century, the first economic speculative bubble in modern history.
Read alsoRussia would use bitcoins to circumvent sanctions
The first cryptocurrency "
is not (...) a store of value, but rather a speculative asset, which is a bit like tulip bulbs in the Netherlands in the 17th century
", he said during a an innovation forum organized by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
“
Tulipomania
” in the Netherlands constitutes the first economic and financial speculative bubble in modern history.
Speculation was based on the trade in tulip bulbs, the prices of which reached peaks, before collapsing in 1637. In 1642, after the crash, the price of the tulip was only one tenth of its value. and a hundred years later to two hundredths.
Read alsoThe tulip, an emblematic flower reinvented every spring
Central bankers are accustomed to charges against cryptocurrencies because of their high volatility, their possible use for the benefit of criminal activities and more broadly their opacity.
Central banks are also wary of stablecoins, these means of payment that use some of the technologies developed by free-flowing cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, but whose issuers assure that they are backed by a currency.
Stablecoins “
create a certain fragmentation and are marred by regulatory and operational uncertainties
,” said Mr. Villeroy de Galhau during his speech.
“
Resisting innovation is not part of our DNA, quite the contrary
,” he continued.
Central banks are indeed multiplying experiments around digital currencies.
At the beginning of March, US President Joe Biden signed a decree to launch, with caution, work on a potential digital dollar, asking the Ministry of the Economy to submit a report within six months on “
the future of money
”.
Cryptocurrencies have meanwhile been under scrutiny since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with several observers worrying about their possible use to circumvent the heavy financial sanctions weighing on Moscow.
