The European Central Bank also called the system an ‘unprecedented polluter’
In an unusually blunt critique of the cryptocurrency, the ECB report said it was not suitable as a payment method and rejected its use as a form of investment. Global regulators are drafting rules for the crypto world, a complex world that ranges from stablecoins – supposedly backed by conventional currencies – to forms of lending that happen on the blockchain, or digital ledgers, that underpins those coins.
The ECB report’s authors, who include Ulrich Bindsell, its director of market infrastructure and payments, were scathing about it, saying bitcoin’s “conceptual design and technological shortcomings make it questionable as a means of payment.”Describing the currency as a “speculative bubble”, which relies on new money flowing in, they said it repeatedly benefited from waves of new investors attracted by “the manipulations by individual exchanges or stablecoin providers.