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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Alex Hern UK technology editor

ECB says bitcoin is on ‘road to irrelevance’ amid crypto collapse

visual representation of digital currency bitcoin gold coin with b next to cash notes
The value of the virtual currency has plummeted from a peak of almost $70,000 to a low of $16,000 since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

The European Central Bank says bitcoin is on an “artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance”, in a scathing intervention arguing against giving regulatory legitimacy to the cryptocurrency.

In a strongly worded blogpost, senior European Central Bank (ECB) staffers Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf criticised bitcoin for being a hotbed of illegal transactions that brings reputational risk for any bank that gets involved with the sector.

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