Bitcoins are dangerous and consumers need to become aware of this. The main European authorities far and wide have decided to officially intervene on the subject of cryptocurrencies trying to warn citizens. From the ECB to Bank of Italy, passing through the three European agencies responsible for banks (EBA), the securities markets (ESMA) and insurance companies (Eiopa), there is only one warning:Bitcoins are highly speculative and therefore very high risk. The possibility of losing a lot of money is very strong.
Much, too often now, people fascinated by celebrities of the new cryptocurrencies decide to invest sums of money without being aware of the dangers they could face by focusing on an instrument which, according to the president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, it's not even a coin. And the reference is not only to the most famous Bitcoin, but also Ripple, Ethereum and all the other "cryptocurrencies" which, not surprisingly, share an extreme volatility.
The number one of the European Central Bank, yesterday answering some questions on Twitter as part of the initiative #AskDragons, has openly declared that he does not consider Bitcoin a currency for two reasons: its value "has strong fluctuations", while "a euro today is a euro tomorrow and its value is stable", but above all behind the “real” currencies are “central banks of their countries and their governments», not behind cryptocurrencies.
However, according to Mario Draghi, regulating this "market" it is not “the responsibility of the European Central Bank”.
Even more peremptory is the general manager of the Bank of Italy and president of IVASS, Salvatore Rossi, who defined bitcoins as “speculative gadgets”. "Their value goes up and down only due to speculative movements. They're not payment systems, or anything like that. Rather, they look like ufos“, Rossi specified.
"There is an enormous mass of money in the world chasing higher returns" in a period of zero interest rates and "the temptation to turn to instruments such as Bitcoin is strong", but we must be careful because "it must be kept in mind that high returns are associated with high risks”, explained the general manager of Bank of Italy.
As evidence of this, it is sufficient to take a look at the trend of the last few months. In mid-December, the cryptocurrency sector reached an all-time high, with a capitalization of 800 billion dollars. Today it is almost half that (423 billion to be exact). Taking Bitcoin as an example alone, the fluctuations are no different. In mid-December its value exceeded 20 thousand dollars, today it is worth less than 9 thousand.
Why then does no one intervene? Because you can't. "Unfortunately there is no worldwide authority capable of blocking Bitcoin – continued Rossi – and today we need an agreement between all countries, none excluded, otherwise it would be ineffective”. In other words, either we decide to act all together on a global level or it will all be useless.
