In light of the recent FTX crash and liquidity scandal, European Union regulators have joined other global lawmakers in a push to establish clearer guidelines and regulations on cryptocurrencies.
The 30th of November, The European Central Bank (ECB) published an article on its blog titled “Bitcoin’s Last Stand,” summarizing Bitcoin’s (BTC) financial run amid current price fluctuations. However, instead of outlining the full picture, which would include both the ups and downs of cryptocurrency’s life thus far, he only portrayed its shortcomings.
Written by Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf, CEO and adviser to the ECB, the article claims that digital currency is on “the path of irrelevance.”
He also claimed that BTC is hardly used for legal transactions and that the regulatory attention it is currently receiving from lawmakers around the world can be “misinterpreted as approval”. Additionally, he warned banks against interacting with digital currency as it could tarnish their reputation.
On Twitter, the organization tweeted that any BTC price stabilization that occurs now will be artificially induced:
The apparent stabilization of bitcoin’s value is likely to be an artificially induced last gasp before the crypto-asset embarks on a road to irrelevance. #TheECBblog looks at where bitcoin stands amid widespread volatility in the crypto markets.
Read more https://t.co/Hk1LuYX2de pic.twitter.com/I3Uidks8Xo—European Central Bank (@ecb) November 30, 2022
The apparent stabilization of bitcoin’s value is likely to be an artificially induced last gasp before the crypto-asset embarks on a path to irrelevance. #TheECBblog takes a look at where Bitcoin stands amid the widespread volatility in the crypto markets.
However, when traditional and centralized financial institutions malign cryptocurrencies, the cryptocurrency community is ready to respond to discredit and defend their assets.
The ECB tweet alone received hundreds of responses, with the crypto community checking the claims of the article and highlighting the background of its authors.
One commenter tweeted about Bindseil’s background, noting a potential conflict of interest, as he has written several articles on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their use cases.
Author : Ulrich Bindseil
I will just leave that here, so everybody knows about the conflict of interest. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/EKz9Mx3ndT
—₿aseload (@Endorsen) November 30, 2022
Author: Ulrich Bindseil
I’ll leave that here, so everyone knows about the conflict of interest.
Another user said that while trying to read it with an open mind, the document’s claims that BTC is not used for legal transactions and rather “illicit activities” were out of date.
I clicked on this article with an open mind, willing to have my mind changed
But it opens with a probable lie
The vast majority of Bitcoin usage is for legal spending, for-profit speculation, and gambling – not “illegal transactions”
It’s not 2012 anymore… This is a joke. pic.twitter.com/037aehMyEN
—FatMan (@FatManTerra) November 30, 2022
I clicked on this article with an open mind, ready to change my mind.
But it opens with a provable lie
The vast majority of Bitcoin use is for legal expenses, profit-seeking speculation, and gambling, not “illegal transactions.”
It’s not 2012 anymore… This is a joke.
Others responded with the tried and true “BTC is dead” meme, while the value of the other continues to rise. Some even went back to December 2021 to point out the ECB’s incorrect predictions about the decline in the inflation in 2022.
In a similar vein, the decline in the value of the euro was also drawn as a comparison in many community responses.
In the meantime, Cryptocurrency exchanges continue to spread across the European Union, with Bitpanda recently obtaining a cryptocurrency license in Germany and Gemini getting the green light in both Italy and Greece.
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