Like other central bankers lately, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, calls for a framework for bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency is a
"speculative asset, which has been used for bizarre business and some totally reprehensible money laundering activities,
" she said Wednesday at a conference hosted by Reuters.
“There must be regulation.
We must apply it and agree on this point at the global level because, if there is a loophole, it will be used, ”
continued the guardian of the euro.
The evolutions of bitcoin have reflected this very speculative character in recent days.
Sinking records one after the other, it successively exceeded 20,000, 30,000 and then 40,000 dollars, before plunging some 20% during the day on Monday.
Over the whole of 2020, the price of bitcoin has quadrupled.
This surge was fueled by the growing appetite of investment funds and businesses.
Imitated by individuals, some of whom got into debt to be able to participate in this frenzy.
"If consumers invest
(in cryptocurrencies),
they must be prepared to lose all of their money,"
the UK financial regulator Financial Conduct Authority warned in a statement Monday.
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Across the Atlantic too, an official from the US central bank recently spoke in favor of rapid regulation of cryptocurrencies.
But
“no one is going to ban bitcoin,”
reassured Brian Brooks, head of the currency control office at the Federal Reserve.
