The governor of the Bank of France has become the latest to voice a warning about investing in bitcoin, stating that those who do do so at their ‘own risk.’
Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Friday, 58-year-old Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said that bitcoin was neither a currency nor a cryptocurrency, reports Fortune.
He said:
It is a speculative asset. Its value and extreme volatility have no economic basis, and they are nobody’s responsibility. The Bank of France reminds those investing in bitcoin that they do so entirely at their own risk.
His comments come at a time when the digital currency’s value dropped from a record high of over $11,000 to around $9,200 at the end of November, amid a major selloff and volatile trading. Despite this, though, the cryptocurrency managed to claw its way back up to $10,760, reportedly due to the announcement that the CME Group is to launch its bitcoin futures on the 18th December.
Speaking on Friday, Terry Duffy, CME Chairman and CEO, said:
We are pleased to bring Bitcoin futures to market after working closely with the CFTC and market participants to design a regulated offering that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery, and risk transfer capabilities.
However, regardless of the digital currency’s rising value, which is further cementing it in the mainstream, it appears that Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein has changed his turn on the digital currency. Following bitcoin’s march to $10,000 he proclaimed that it is a ‘vehicle to penetrate fraud.’ Speaking earlier this week, he stated:
Something that moves up and down 20 percent in a day doesn’t feel like a currency, doesn’t feel like a store of value. If it works out — and it gets more established, and it trades more like a store of value, and it doesn’t move up and down 20 percent, and there is liquidity to it — we’ll get to it.
In the past Blankfein has maintained a neutral position on bitcoin, previously saying that while he wasn’t okay with it, he was ‘open‘ to the idea of it. Now, though, in a shifting of gears Blankfein is of the opinion that the digital currency won’t work out and that it’s not for him.
His feelings mimic those that have proceeded him such as Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, who called bitcoin ‘a fraud’ in September. This was later followed up with the statement that it was ‘worth nothing.’