Cryptocurrency Warning From Bank Of England Governor

The Governor of the Bank of England (BOE), Andrew Bailey, had a very blunt warning for people investing in cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Bailey was responding to a question about the rising value of cryptocurrencies.

Bailey said cryptocurrencies “have no intrinsic value” and people should only buy cryptocurrencies if they are prepared to lose all their money.

Crypto caution

Andrew Bailey was quoted by Markets Insider as telling journalists following the central bank’s interest rate decision on Thursday that he thinks cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have no value in their own right.

“I would only emphasise what I’ve said quite a few times in recent years. I’m afraid they have no intrinsic value,” he reportedly said.

“Now that doesn’t mean to say people don’t put value on them, because they can have extrinsic value. But they have no intrinsic value,” he reportedly said.

“I’m sorry, I’m going to say this very bluntly again: buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money,” he added.

This is not the first time that the UK’s central bank has issue a warning about cryptocurrencies.

It should be remembered that the Bank of England in September 2014 warned that Bitcoin could pose a threat to financial stability in the UK should it see widespread adoption.

Bailey’s comments come amid a surge in value for Bitcoin, that has seen the digital currency value rise and fall, and then rise again.

There has also been a notable surge in dogecoin, which is a digital token created as a joke in 2013.

Dogecoin has soared more than 20,000 percent over the last year, boosted by celebrity endorsements (including Elon Musk) and publicity on social-media.

Central bank backing?

Last month the Bank of England and HM Treasury announced that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak had asked them to look at the case for a new “Britcoin”, or central bank-backed digital currency.

A taskforce has been created to look into this possibility.

But regulators and central banks around the world have typically not been overly keen on digital currencies.

In 2019 the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project, “cannot go forward” until serious concerns are addressed.