European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said that cryptocurrencies are not real currencies during the ECB Youth Dialogue meeting with the winners of the Generation €uro Students’ Award, as Cointelegraph Italia reported on May 9.
During the meeting, Draghi answered a question about cryptocurrencies asked by one of the winners of the award:
“Cryptocurrencies or bitcoins, or anything like that, are not really currencies — they are assets. A euro is a euro — today, tomorrow, in a month — it’s always a euro. And the ECB is behind the euro. Who is behind the cryptocurrencies? So they are very, very risky assets.”
The crypto community responded on Twitter criticizing Draghi’s stance and pointing to fiat currencies’ inflation as a proof of the fact that the euro is not stable in its price either.
In his comments, the head of the ECB also claimed that currently, cryptocurrencies “are not significant enough in their entity that they could affect our economies in a macro way.”
As well, Draghi stated that it is not ECB’s competency to regulate cryptocurrencies. Instead, according to him, it is “something that falls within the consumer protection competence, where you want to make sure that people who buy into these assets know what they do and are aware of the risks they run.”
As Cointelegraph reported in September last year, the ECB has no plans to issue its own digital currency.
In May 2018, ECB board member Yves Mersch had said that banks should segregate their dealings in cryptocurrencies from other activities.