On September 25th, at the hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Mario Draghi, the President of ECB, talked about the current economic and inflation outlook for the European Union, the growth of the real GDP (coming at 2.3%), the corporate sector purchase program and the monetary policy in the euro area, a question on the regulation of bitcoin and ECB’s role in the cryptocurrency development came up.
According to Coindesk, Draghi stated that: “it would actually not be in our powers to prohibit and regulate bitcoin and other digital currencies”.
Draghi shared his opinion on the risk and scale that digital money pose to the bank and the overall economy, while stating the “immaturity” of cryptocurrencies to “be considered a viable payment method”.
Coindesk said that Draghi’s biggest worry is the issue with cybersecurity, and that the number one priority for ECB will be protecting people from cyber risks.
Draghi debunked Estonia’s e-Residency project for the initiation of a domestic cryptocurrency called “estcoin” and said:
“I will comment on the Estonian decision: no member state can introduce its own currency. The currency of the Eurozone is the euro”, said Draghi, as reported by Coindesk.
With CEOs of major banks and governments trying to “ride on” the cryptocurrency boom, the question of what the actual fear for regulators is remains.