Bitcoin may eventually collapse - Swedish central bank governor
- The Bitcoin (BTC-USD) warnings are coming from far and wide following a big week that saw El Salvador legalize the crypto as legal tender. Bitcoin -0.5% to $46,087.
- Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves: "Private money usually collapses sooner or later. And sure, you can get rich by trading in Bitcoin, but it's comparable to trading in stamps," he warned at a banking conference in Stockholm. Earlier this year, Ingves said that cryptos as a whole are unlikely to escape regulatory oversight as their popularity grows. "When something becomes large enough, factors such as consumer interests and money laundering enter the picture."
- Banxico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon: "Whoever receives Bitcoin in exchange for a good or service, we believe that [transaction] is more akin to bartering because that person is exchanging a good for a good, but not really money for a good. In our times, money has evolved to be fiat money issued by central banks. People will not want their purchasing power, their salary to go up or down 10% from one day to another. You don't want that volatility for purchasing power. In that sense, it is not a good safeguard of value."
- Regulation coming? Don't forget the warnings from SEC Chair Gary Gensler earlier this month, who called crypto the "Wild West." It's "rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications. If we don't address these issues, I worry a lot of people will be hurt." What exactly the SEC ends up doing is yet to be determined, but the agency did go after Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) this week over a product called Lend, which would let users earn interest by lending digital assets. The SEC said the program securitizes crypto via interest passed on to the customer, though the Wells notice caused an uproar in the DeFi community and prompted some charged tweets from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.