CIO of Amundi, Europe’s Second Largest Asset Supervisor, Calls Bitcoin a ‘Farce’ 

The chief funding officer for Amundi, Europe’s second largest asset supervisor, not too long ago referred to as the world’s hottest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, a “farce.”

In keeping with Reuters, Amundi CIO Pascal Blanque made his feedback about Bitcoin throughout a current information convention.

“Bitcoin will probably be remembered for pushing central banks to undertake digital cash,” Blanque mentioned in the course of the information convention, in response to Reuters.

Reuters additionally reported that Blanque added that regulators and governments will in the end “cease the music,” with Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.

In response to a remark request, a spokesperson for Amundi directed Newsweek to the asset supervisor’s analysis report on cryptocurrencies, which mentioned, “As of at this time cryptocurrencies (CCs) can’t be thought-about a type of cash as they’re neither a confirmed retailer of worth, nor a acknowledged unit of account and even much less a common technique of fee.”

“CCs don’t have any actual financial underlying asset and subsequently there isn’t any valuation mannequin,” the report mentioned. “A totally decentralized and disintermediated CC system might allow the event of worldwide fee programs which can be quicker, cheaper and extra inclusive than present fee programs.”

Bitcoin tumbled final month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized its excessive power use and China elevated its efforts to dam monetary establishments from conducting Bitcoin transactions.

“Costs of cryptocurrency have skyrocketed and plummeted not too long ago, and speculative buying and selling has bounced again. This significantly harms the protection of individuals’s property and disturbs regular financial and monetary orders,” regulators supervised by the Folks’s Financial institution of China and the China Insurance coverage and Banking Fee mentioned in a press release.

In a tweet in Might, Musk wrote that “Tesla has suspended car purchases utilizing Bitcoin. We’re involved concerning the quickly growing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, particularly coal, which was the worst emissions of any gas.”

Musk additionally mentioned that Bitcoin’s power utilization “insane,” however famous that Tesla will not be promoting any Bitcoin.

Bitcoin dropped greater than 10 p.c after Musk’s tweet. The cryptocurrency was beforehand buying and selling at round $58,000 firstly of Might and hit an all-time excessive of $64,829 in April.

The U.Okay.’s Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) mentioned on Thursday that quite a few monetary corporations investing in Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies have failed to satisfy the company’s anti-money laundering legal guidelines.

“A considerably excessive variety of companies will not be assembly the required requirements underneath the Cash Laundering Rules. This has resulted in an unprecedented variety of companies withdrawing their functions,” FCA mentioned in a press release.

Regardless of the feedback from Blanque, Bitcoin has risen by 8 p.c this previous week and is presently buying and selling above $38,000 as of publication time.

Throughout a current interview with CNBC’s Squawk Field, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who beforehand mentioned it was his aim to place Bitcoin on town’s steadiness sheet, mentioned on Thursday that whereas he owns Bitcoin, it will take time for it to change into a traditional type of fee within the metropolis.

“We’re not allowed to carry one thing that isn’t fiat at this explicit second so that may require a state legislation change,” Suarez mentioned. “The volatility of it’s one thing that can in all probability must work itself out.”

Newsweek reached out to Amundi for additional remark, however didn’t obtain a response in time for publication.