European governments are pushing for global Bitcoin (TIKER: BTC.EXANTE) regulation amid mounting alarm that the world’s most popular digital currency is being used by money-launderers, drug traffickers and terrorists, Bloomberg reported.
Germany’s Finance Ministry said it welcomed a proposal by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to ask his counterparts in the Group of 20 to consider joint regulation of Bitcoin.
“It makes sense to discuss the speculative risks of virtual currencies and their impact on the financial system at international level,” the Finance Ministry in Berlin said.
The next meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors would be “a good opportunity to do so.”
The Finance Ministry in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, “monitors developments in the financial market very closely,” it said. “This also applies to the current development of Bitcoin.
The concerns are shared by the Italian government, which is also open to discussing regulation, while the European Union is bringing in rules backed by the U.K. that would apply to Bitcoin.
The comments came as Bitcoin was closing in on a fresh record of $20,000 on Monday.