European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s concerns about the use of cryptocurrencies come from afar. Even during his time at the helm of the IMF, he compared them to Dutch tulips and the dot-com bubble. And during his time in Frankfurt he never changed his position. “Counterfeit money,” he called it. What was previously unknown is that he had the enemy at home. According to the Portal agency, in a conversation with students in the German city, he revealed that one of his sons had decided to spend part of his money on speculation by buying cryptocurrencies, despite his mother strongly warning him about the risks. “He completely ignored me, which is his right,” she said. “And he lost almost everything he had invested,” he said.
The Frenchwoman did not specify which of her two sons (both in their 30s) was tempted to expand their checking account with digital currencies, nor which cryptocurrency was chosen (Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular). He also did not quantify the amount invested and simply pointed out that it was not a very large amount. However, he explained that the proportion of losses was around 60%. This means that if you had invested 10,000 euros, you would have lost 6,000 euros. Finally, his son gave in during a domestic dispute with his mother. “When I spoke to him again about the issue, he reluctantly agreed that I was right,” Lagarde added.
So far this year, Bitcoin is up around 127%, and the second largest Bitcoin, Ethereum, is up 83%, so Lagarde’s son’s operations must have taken place in 2022, when Bitcoin lost exactly around 60% of its value. It is also unknown whether the investment was in Bitcoins or other smaller and therefore more volatile currencies, as their price is easier to change without requiring large investments.
In her speech, Lagarde openly expressed her already known position on this type of assets, perhaps with the intention of dissuading those of her listeners who were thinking about using part of their savings to purchase cryptocurrencies in the future. , very popular among a section of the youth. “As you can see, I have a very low opinion of cryptocurrencies,” he said. “People are free to invest their money wherever they want, they can speculate as much as they want, but people should not have the freedom to engage in criminally sanctioned operations and businesses,” he said in reference on the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals and terrorists because it is easier to launder and get to organized gangs than traditional money as it bypasses the banking channel and thus enables criminals to obtain financing.
Proponents of cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, estimate that institutions such as the European Central Bank are against the spread of this type of currency because it would mean losing their monopoly on issuing money. In fact, the ECB is preparing its own version of electronic money, a digital euro, designed to counter cryptocurrencies that are seen as a threat to its sovereignty. A first phase of research was completed in October, which lasted two years and must go through two further phases that will extend preparations until at least 2026.
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