Bank of France warns on bitcoin speculation
PARIS - Reuters
Bitcoin is a speculative asset and people who invest in it do so at their own risk, the Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned on Dec. 1 after recent volatile trading.
“We need to be clear: bitcoin is in no way a currency, or even a cryptocurrency,” Villeroy said in remarks made at a conference in Beijing, according to the Bank of France.
“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,” he added.
Bitcoin hovered around $9,600 in volatile trade on Dec. 1, after tumbling about 15 percent from an all-time high hit this week as some money managers warned ominously of a bubble and further falls.
In the past week, Google searches for “bitcoin” exceeded searches for “Trump” for the first time, data from Google showed, even though U.S. President Donald Trump has been prominently in the news this week.
