ECB’s Lagarde Calls for Global Bitcoin Regulation

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has called for global regulations on Bitcoin, accusing the cryptocurrency of enabling “funny business” and “totally reprehensible money laundering activity.”

Speaking at Reuters Next conference on Wednesday, the Central Bank head called Bitcoin a highly speculative asset and suggested it doesn’t fit the bill of a currency.

“When you look at the most recent developments upward, and now the recent downward trend … for those who have assumed that it might turn into a currency, terribly sorry but this is an asset and it is a highly speculative asset which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity,” Lagarde said in light of Bitcoin’s rally from under $4,000 in March, to over $40,000 in January.

She would not mention a specific instance of “funny business” or money laundering undertaken with Bitcoin.

The banker went on to suggest that global regulation on the worlds most famous cryptocurrency, and presumably the entire crypto market, needs to come under global regulation.

“There has to be regulation. This has to be applied and agreed upon […] at a global level because if there is an escape that escape will be used,” she said.

Lagarde had previously called for global cooperation on cryptocurrency regulation in 2018 when she accused digital currencies of enabling “dark activity,” telling CNN Money that “it’s clearly a domain where we need international regulation and proper supervision.”

Ironically, the former IMF chair told the Wall Street Journal in 2016 that she would be surprised if banks did not adopt digital currencies in 5 years time.

As Marie Huilliet of Coin Telegraph notes, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies’ anonymous/pseudonymous and decentralized nature has caused complex interaction with jurisdictional regulatory frameworks, presenting a challenge for international authorities.

Lagarde’s call for regulation comes as the ECB has extended its massive liquidity injection program – the pandemic emergency purchase programme – by €500 billion to a total of €1,850 billion. The program, in which the central bank purchases private and public sector securities, is expect to last through March 2022.

So, as the Lagarde accuses Bitcoin of enabling “funny business” the ECB is printing billions of euros out of thin air to prop up markets …

To that we say ..

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