Last week, amidst the champagne flutes and snowy peaks of Davos, Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney issued a damning assessment of cryptocurrencies. He questioned the very definition of the financial phenomenon – “they’re not crypto-currencies; they’re at best crypto-assets” – before concluding that they were simply “not going anywhere”.
This is not the first time Carney has rained on the crypto parade. Despite his assertion in Davos that cryptocurrencies were “not going to disrupt” financial markets, in March 2018 he called for increased regulation to “protect the safety and soundness of the financial system” from blockchain-based instruments. “The time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system.”
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