Russia central bank head Elvira Nabiullina has warned of so-called “cryptomania” and said she was “categorically against” regulating cryptocurrency money, or equating it with foreign currency, Bloomberg reports.
“We are categorically against regulating cryptocurrencies as money, as a means by which payment can be made for goods and services, and against equating them with foreign currency,” Elvira Nabiullina said at a forum organized by a group of Russian banks in Sochi.
“Because, as I’ve said more than once before, we understand there’s foreign currency, states which issue it, economics, central banks supporting it. Here the phenomenon of cryptocurrency is less understood,” she admitted.
On Tuesday chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon said that Bitcoin was 'a fraud' and it would blow up. Speaking at a bank investor conference in New York, Dimon added: “The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart.”
Bitcoin’s (Bitcoin) price fell as much as 4 percent following Dimon’s comments and was last trading at $4,164. Rumors that the Chinese government is planning to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges has weighed on Bitcoin recently.
“China doesn’t recognize cryptocurrency as payment and forbids ICOs. Our views are absolutely similar. In our view it’s a sort of a financial pyramid that may collapse at any moment,” Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Dmitry Skobelkin told reporters after meeting with Chinese central bank officials earlier in the week.