No matter how high bitcoin prices go or what records they break, banks will still have “no appetite” for the digital currency because of money laundering risks, said Credit Suisse Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam.
“Most banks in the current state of regulation have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges,” Thiam said at a news conference in Zurich Thursday.
He clarified that anonymity associated with bitcoin is a significant problem for banks that will not go away.
On top of that, bitcoin is in a definite bubble, Thiam added, as all trades are based on “speculation.”
“From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble,” he explained.
And such speculation has “rarely led to a happy end,” Thiam pointed out.
Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high on Thursday, breaching $7,000 for the very first time. According to Kitco’s aggregated charts, bitcoin was last seen at $7,038.50, after briefly touching a high of $7,350.
In another negative comment about digital currencies, ING’s chief financial officer Koos Timmermans advised his clients not to invest in cryptos.
Credit to Kidco.com
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