The IMF (International Monetary Fund) calls for regulation of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general. For Christine Lagarde, the President of the IMF, virtual currencies do not lack assets, but in the absence of regulation, they may be used for bad purposes, by terrorists and criminals.
In a new post on her blog, Christine Lagarde spoke at length about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. A few days before the G20, which will take place on March 19-20 in Buenos Aires and which will decide in part on the future of cryptocurrencies, the IMF executive highlighted the strengths and risks of using virtual currencies. .
Bitcoin: before the G20, the IMF calls for regulating the cryptocurrency market
The president began by highlighting "promising advances" in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. "The technology behind these assets, such as blockchain, could revolutionize areas beyond finance," says Christine Lagarde. Despite her enthusiasm, the leader, who heads the IMF since 2011, calls for caution. Like the SEC (a US regulator), the Bank of France, or the European Union, the President of the IMF calls for regulating the cryptocurrency market.
"Governments and bankers must work together to devise a regulation on cryptocurrencies to prevent them from being used to launder money and to finance terrorist activities," warned Christine Lagarde. The executive does not appreciate the independence of the virtual currency market from central banks. "Transactions in crypto-assets are anonymous, like cash," she explains. Like a recent report by the Banque de France, which threatened to frame Bitcoin, Christine Lagarde prefers the term crypto-assets to that of cryptocurrencies.
To support her argument, she uses the example of Alphabay, the famous supermarket for drugs and weapons on the dark web. The platform has generated a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions. According to justice, 380,000 products and 200,000 regular customers were registered on the site. Regarded as the black market Ebay, Alphabay was closed by the FBI and Europol in July 2017.
Christine Lagarde concludes her post by listing the initiatives supported by the IMF. "We can fight fire with fire," says the president. To secure and regulate the cryptocurrency market, the IMF is encouraging the creation of a client registry, common to secure platforms, the use of biometric scanners, and cryptography to secure transactions. Similarly, it is said for the use of artificial intelligence to identify the malicious maneuvers in the cryptocurrency market.
The statements of Christine Lagarde are part of a broader desire to control the use of cryptocurrencies. Like the IMF, the European Union will take advantage of the G20 to discuss the regulation of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. For his part, Emmanuel Macron has already expressed support for IMF intervention in the cryptocurrency market. Faced with these many initiatives, the price of cryptocurrencies will it experience a new plunge? What should we expect from the G20?
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