In an interview on Friday Bank of England Governor Mark Carney was highly critical of Bitcoin in a speech and interview on Friday, warning the digital currency could be heading for a “brutal reckoning.”
Speaking to Sky News, the Governor said about cryptocurrencies:
“all the hallmarks of a bubble. And normally they end with a pretty brutal reckoning.”
Bitcoin rose almost 1,500% last year and its rapid rise attracted large numbers of retail investors to space. However, the virtual currency has dropped in value since the start of the year and some commentators suggest the entire space is unsustainable.
Carney said that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are “failing” in their key objectives and called for regulation of the space.
Comparing cryptocurrencies to fiat, Carney said in his speech on Friday:
“The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users. The short answer is they are failing.”
Carney said bitcoin fails to pass several key tests of what a currency should be able to do. Citing the work of Scottish economist Adam Smith, Carney noted that currencies should be a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fail at least two of these tests, he said.
“Cryptocurrencies are proving poor short-term stores of value. Over the past five years, the daily standard deviation of Bitcoin was ten times that of sterling. Consider that if you had taken out a £1,000 student loan in Bitcoin in last December to pay your sterling living costs for next year, you’d be short about £500 right now. If you’d done the same last September, you’d be ahead by £2,000. That’s quite a lottery. And Bitcoin is one of the more stable cryptocurrencies.”
Cryptocurrencies also fail as a medium of exchange, Carney said:
“The most fundamental reason to be sceptical about the longer term value of cryptocurrencies is that it is not clear the extent to which they will ever become effective media of exchange,”
Carney made a similar assertion that bitcoin is “failing” in another speech last month. S&P Global Ratings argued in a recent note that cryptocurrencies are “a speculative instrument” rather than a cryptocurrency.
Carney called for greater regulation of cryptocurrencies in an interview with Sky News at the venue of Friday’s speech:
“There are issues for authorities who deal with money laundering, terrorist financing, and price fixing. There have been a number of incidents of theft — not just big crimes but also steady thefts from people’s wallets.The operational standards of these currencies are nowhere near where they need to be. They will be regulated in my view.”
Earlier this week it emerged that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent out subpoenas to cryptocurrency companies asking for information. The move has been seen by most as a precursor to regulating the sector.
Initially slated to appear at the inaugural Scottish Economics Conference in Edinburgh, Carney was forced to deliver his speech remotely thanks to the severe weather which has hit the UK in recent days.
With regard to Mark Carney’s own performance in the financial world:
My favorite nocoiners are the ones who run currencies.
Mark Carney oversaw a 40% drop in the gold value of the Canadian dollar in 5 years & a 7% drop in sterling in 5 years. His currencies lost half their value in 10 years, while Bitcoin appreciated 10,000,000%.
Who is failing? https://t.co/pThlB5BHzO— Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean) March 2, 2018
Overall this is another predictable attack on Bitcoin by the legacy banking elite. Nothing new is being said here and certainly nothing that should worry the Bitcoin community as a whole. What he is really concerned about when says it “threatens financial stability” is that it threatens the relevance of government controlled fiat currencies and central banks.
Comments are off this post!