The European Central Bank's senior executive Fabio Panetta has proposed a ban on cryptocurrencies because they have an excessive ecological impact and at the same time he equates investing in cryptocurrencies to gambling.
He suggested that cryptocurrencies that use a proof-of-work (PoW) method to verify transactions, such as bitcoin (BTC-USD). banned.
He also compared crypto to the gambling industry, concluding that "many cryptocurrencies are just a new way of gambling". He added: “Overall, it is difficult to see the justification for the existence of an unbacked crypto-asset in the financial landscape.
For him it is just a speculative asset. Investors buy them with the sole objective of selling them at a higher price. In fact, it is a gamble masquerading as an investment asset.
Panetta warned investors against allocating capital to cryptocurrencies because they are like houses that are increasingly unstable.
Waima thus supports central banks issuing their own digital currency, called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). : “To harness the possibilities of digital technology, we must provide a solid foundation for the broader digital financial ecosystem”.
He added, "This requires a risk-free and reliable digital settlement asset, which can only be provided by central bank money. And that is why the ECB is working on a digital euro and also considering new technologies for the future.”
The European Commission announced earlier this year that it would propose a bill in early 2023 to introduce a euro central bank digital currency (CBDC), while the ECB has been working on developing such a project since July 2021.
