The President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has declared that cryptocurrencies are only for money laundering and therefore not only should be regulated, but those who invest in them risk losing all their money.
Lagarde’s words were very strong, following those of the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, who recently declared that cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value.
Lagarde’s speech took place last Friday at the European University Institute and these were her words:
“Crypto-currencies – these two things don’t go well together and I totally agree with Dr. Bailey’s conclusion in that respect”, although Lagarde in this case did not specify the name of any cryptocurrency.
Moreover, during the speech she went on to say:
“There are crypto assets … which people are free to invest in and take total risk into, and there are particular cryptos that are, in my view, so prone to money laundering activities.”
This is not the first time Lagarde has insisted on regulation, saying that cryptocurrencies are only useful for money laundering.
Lagarde against cryptocurrencies
A few months ago, the President of the ECB also spoke out against stablecoins as a type of crypto. Lagarde said they were a threat to sovereign currencies and that big tech companies could take advantage of this and gain even more power.
Conversely, Lagarde would be in favour of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), probably so that stablecoins would lose their appeal to users.
Furthermore, Lagarde had also explained that central banks would never buy bitcoin since it would not be, according to her words, a currency due to its high volatility.
In January, however, Lagarde had explained that cryptocurrencies are only used for money laundering activities, even though in reality most of these activities are still primarily carried out in euro fiat currencies.
