BOJ’s Kuroda Criticizes Bitcoin – Central Bank Governor Says Trade Is “Barley For Settlement” – Bitcoin News
Following recent developments in China and environmental concerns about Bitcoin’s energy consumption, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda criticized the leading crypto asset Bitcoin in an interview on Thursday.
BOJ’s Kuroda Says Bitcoin Is “Extraordinarily High”
Bitcoin prices collapsed again on Friday after a turbulent week. After reaching a daily high of $ 40,125 per unit on Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a low of $ 35,146 and lost more than 12% in value. Since then, however, BTC has managed to regain some losses and climb back above the $ 36,000 mark.
While addressing concerns about inflation and climate change, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda criticized Bitcoin as speculative and volatile. The BoJ governor also said that bitcoin will not be used for payments.
According to Bloomberg, part of the recent sell-off in early Friday morning (ET) could be due to comments from Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. The head of the central bank criticized Bitcoin, saying that the crypto asset was not used much at all for billing purposes. Kuroda’s criticism follows recent statements by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that they wanted to turn the bustling city into a “trading hub” for cryptocurrencies. BoJ Governor Kuroda’s outlook for cryptocurrencies appears to be completely different.
“Most of the trading is speculative and the volatility is exceptionally high,” Kuroda said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg about Bitcoin. “It is rarely used as a currency,” added the central bank governor.
Kuroda speaks on climate change and addresses inflation concerns
Kuroda may speak out against Bitcoin because of the climate change discussions he participated in this week. Not only do central banks around the world criticize Bitcoin, but many leading banks are also dealing with climate change concerns these days. The BoJ’s Kuroda said Thursday the central bank had a “great interest” in addressing these climate issues.
“Of course, we will discuss how we will react to this on a monetary policy level,” stressed Kuroda on Thursday. Similar to the questions Jerome Powell asked about inflation, Kuroda was also asked about inflation this week. “This political stance is based on the recognition that once it is firmly entrenched, it will take time to overcome low inflation,” noted Kuroda. The central bank governor added:
This is the lesson from Japan’s experience of persistent deflation.
Kuroda’s statements on Bitcoin also follow the purchase of 1,717 BTC by the country’s gambling giant, Nexon, on April 28th. Contrary to what the BoJ governor said, Nexon recently said, “Bitcoin provides long-term stability and liquidity while preserving the value of our cash for future investments.” The Japanese regulators, on the other hand, are South Korea’s role model in preparing the guidelines for the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF) for crypto assets.
While discussing inflation fears with the press on Thursday, the BoJ governor stressed that the stimulus would continue. Following the same stability line of 2% inflation as reported by many other central banks, Kuroda noted that the BoJ’s stimulus must remain persistent.
“Every central bank has to adapt its monetary policy to its own economic, price and financial situation,” concluded Kuroda. “Our inflation rate is still quite low and so we must persist in our monetary easing in order to achieve our price stability target of 2%.”
Tags in this story
Bank of Japan, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Japan, BOJ, BTC, Climate Change, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, Haruhiko Kuroda, Inflation, Japan, Japan Bitcoin, Nexon, Stimulus, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, Tokyo Trading Center
What do you think of BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his comments on Bitcoin? Let us know what you think on this matter in the comments below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a Florida-based financial tech journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for bitcoin, open source code and decentralized applications. As of September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News on the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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