Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has said cryptocurrency is a topic at the World Economic Forum (WEF) “because it has value,” talking to Cointelegraph.
In exclusive comments to Cointelegraph, which is attending the currently ongoing event in Davos, Kerry appeared unsurprised that Bitcoin and Blockchain had become a major talking point in global financial circles.
“People are investing in it, it’s serious amounts of money and it’s got value so it’s going to be talked about,” he said.
The response comes as cryptocurrency receives more and more regulatory attention and associated publicity across the world.
Amid mixed signals from lawmakers in major jurisdictions such as South Korea, cryptocurrency’s high profile nonetheless appears to jar with the comparatively simplistic appraisals given by Davos attendees.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, when asked how he felt about moving markets with his accusation that Bitcoin was a “fraud” last year, told Cointelegraph he “can’t answer.”
“I’m not a skeptic!” he protested when pressed about his previous critical standpoint on cryptocurrency.
On the sidelines of the event, Cointelegraph reported earlier how Swiss National Bank chairman Thomas Jordan argued for traditional regulation of cryptocurrency in line with existing financial instruments.
In addition, economist Joseph Stiglitz went further, championing the US dollar and telling Bloomberg illicit use of Bitcoin would see governments “regulate it out of existence.”
Conversely, during a flagship session on the ‘Strategic Outlook for the Digital Economy,’ WEF panelists didn’t mention cryptocurrency once during the hour-long session, despite its increasing impact being felt across the globe.
The interviews in Davos were conducted by Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr, Cointelegraph’s managing editor.