ECB President: Bitcoin is ‘highly speculative’ and needs to be regulated

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday that bitcoin is "highly speculative" and therefore needs to be regulated.

Lagarde told the Reuters Next conference that crypto regulations must be implemented and agreed upon globally, noting that bitcoin is used to conduct “some funny businesses and some totally reprehensible money laundering.”

She stressed, “There has to be regulation, and it has to be globally implemented and agreed upon. If there are loopholes, then these loopholes will be exploited. So I think global cooperation and multilateral action is absolutely needed, whether it is initiated by the G7 and extended to the G20 group. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is obviously an organization that has taken action in this regard.”

Lagarde also spoke about central bank digital currencies at the conference, noting that the ECB had just concluded a consultation with the general public on a digital euro yesterday and had received responses to the consultation at the “highest level”.

She explained, “No fewer than 8,000 people have actually logged in and answered many of the questions on that questionnaire about the digital euro. So we are moving forward. This is an area where we need to be very careful and we need to have a secure system that meets the needs of Europeans.”

She did not provide a specific timeline for launching a digital euro, but said it would take "a lot of time to make sure we have a secure system."

Lagarde said, "Things in the fintech field are moving very fast, so we need to not only be vigilant, but also put safety first." She hopes that digital currency can be launched in no more than 5 years.

Image source: pixabay

AuthorLiang Che

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