Ex-ECB President Slams Bitcoin’s Value, Describes it as ‘Speculative’ 

Bitcoin has always had its naysayers. They see the asset as nothing more than a figment of the arbitrary that will eventually blow up in the face of its millions of investors. 

The latest in that line of detractors is Jean-Claude Trichet, a former president of the European Central Bank. According to a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Trichet was an attendee at the Caixin conference in Beijing, where he argued that the most popular cryptocurrency in the world is a speculative asset which doesn’t have any of the characteristics of a currency. 

No Real Value Driving the Bitcoin Price 

“I am strongly against Bitcoin, and I think we are a little complacent. […] The currency itself is not real, with the characteristics that a currency must-have,” he reportedly said, while also refuting the possibility of cryptocurrencies ever being the future of money. 

When asked about stablecoins (cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to actual fiat currencies), Trichet stuck to his guns, adding that they are just as speculative in value as those who aren’t. Trichet also spoke on Libra, the stablecoin project that is being developed by social media giant Facebook. On the embattled cryptocurrency, the finance chief sounded his concerns stating that he had issues with keeping the control of monetary value in the cryptocurrency space. 

For this to happen, he endorsed Special Drawing Rights, assets issued by the International Monetary Fund which, just like Libra, are also pegged to the value of a basket of several fiat currencies. 

Trichet isn’t the only notable person who believes that cryptocurrencies don’t qualify to be given the “currency” moniker. A day earlier, as Inside Bitcoins previously reported, the Central Bank of Tunisia would be launching the e-dinar, a digital version of its dinar fiat currency, which will help the country embrace the digital economy and signify the move of its currency to the blockchain. 

However, while the fanfare surrounding this development in the crypto space is justified (given how long experts have clamored for a Central Bank Digital Currency), Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of Tunisia, reiterated severally that cryptocurrencies are not to be classified as such. 

Nabiullina’s beef with cryptocurrencies is slightly different from those of Trichet. Instead of harping on the issue of speculative values and whether or not Bitcoin has actual worth like Trichet and other Bitcoin bashers like Peter Schiff and Nouriel Roubini, Nabiullina pointed out that cryptocurrencies exist without control or oversight by financial regulators. Furthermore, she clarified that this isn’t their point with the e-dinar. 

“We are for the development of financial technologies. But we do not support private money in any form, digitally or not. If they replace public money, they will destroy monetary policy and financial stability. We are against,” she confirmed. 

A lack of control is much more credible, especially since it is true. It surf offers a much more compelling argument than the overbeaten attack line that Bitcoin is somewhat speculative.