Irish Central Bank Warns of Crypto Asset Risks

Derwille ROWLAND, one of the top officials of the Central Bank of Ireland, has joined a number of regulators and traditional financial market experts to voice concerns about the cryptocurrency boom. The recent rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is a major concern, she said. She also highlighted that crypto assets are quite speculative and unregulated investments. In addition, she urged investors to be careful as they could lose all their investments.

Her comments against digital currencies followed a few days after the strong criticism of the asset class from the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew BAILEY. He said that cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and warned investors to buy them only if they are willing to lose all their money. Last week, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko KURODA expressed concern about the extremely high volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Cryptocurrencies, in particular bitcoin, have become widespread in institutions in recent months. The inclusion of a digital asset on the balance sheets of many companies, investments of billionaires and foundations have raised the price of bitcoin to nearly $65,000. However, there have been corrections in the cryptocurrency market for several weeks. Bitcoin has lost over 45 percent of its peak value.

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