“It’s a very particular asset, it’s a speculative asset by definition looking to the developments in its price. Investors are taking that risk of buying at such high prices,” Constancio told the media when asked about the cryptocurrency.
The European Central Bank Vice President said investors are taking a risk by buying bitcoin at high prices just when the digital currency passed the $10.000 mark. He added that price of bitcoin is probably going to fluctuate more, but that this is not set to hurt other markets in any way. “Certainly, I don’t think it would spread to other markets,” Constancio said.
Couple months ago, ECB President, Mario Draghi, said that cryptocurrencies were not “mature” enough to be considered by the ECB for regulation.
“With anything that’s new, people have great expectations and also great uncertainty. Right now, we think that especially as far as bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are concerned, we don’t think the technology is mature for our consideration,” Draghi said at the time.
When Constancio was asked if and when central banks will take cryptocurrencies seriously, he commented: “We don’t have to, in the sense that we don’t have responsibility or even instruments that point to particular prices of particular assets, that is certainly not the role of central banks.”
