Germany's Financial Supervisory Authority Compares Bitcoin to Gambling
Mark Branson, chairman of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), said that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and that investors, especially small retail ones, risk major financial losses.
While investors have easier access to bitcoin through traditional financial instruments — cryptocurrency-linked exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — that doesn't make bitcoin a smart investment, Branson said.
Branson compared crypto assets to casinos and gambling, where you can always end up losing. In his opinion, the strong volatility of cryptocurrencies, when Bitcoin can fall by several thousand dollars in a day, is incompatible with serious capital management. Cryptocurrencies have no economic value compared to stocks and government bonds, the official said.
The BaFin chief has long been wary of digital assets. Branson believes that much of the bitcoin trading is done on the dark web, for ransomware payments and other illegal activities. He has called for tighter regulation of cryptocurrencies to prevent the growing number of fraudulent activities. As Branson put it, regulators should not allow “this parallel universe to expand unchecked.”
In March, BaFin ordered the sale of Ethena Labs' USDe stablecoin to be halted due to its non-compliance with the European Union's MiCA (MiCA), which requires crypto service providers in Germany to have a BaFin license to operate legally in the country.
Source: cryptonews.net
