Cryptocurrency investors should assess the high risks of their investments, since the value of digital assets depends solely on the optimism of market participants. In an interview with RIA Novosti заявил аудитор Счетной палаты Alexey Savatyugin.
“Unlike full-fledged money or bonds [cryptocurrencies] have no intrinsic value; they are not backed by anything. Unlike stocks they do not give rights to receive payments or participate in the business, unlike fiat money they are heavily restricted as a means of payment. In other words, cryptocurrency depends only on the optimism of market players, and that is a very high risk,” — said Savatyugin.
He also believes that cryptocurrencies are a very significant and noticeable element of the design of the world financial system:
“Total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies exceeds $2 trillion — that is larger than the entire capitalization of the Russian stock market. You can’t ignore that.”
The auditor backed strict regulatory oversight of the industry, which the Central Bank adheres to, and doubted that the regulator would soften its rhetoric.
According to him, the Accounts Chamber has not yet discussed any initiative of its own to regulate cryptocurrencies.
“We have the Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance; we follow their discussion with interest,” concluded Alexey Savatyugin.
Back in 2015, Alexey Savatyugin called cryptocurrencies the biggest financial breakthrough in the last half-century and said that Bitcoin’s rejection in Russia was linked solely to regulators’ unwillingness to understand what it is.
He also called the “full absurdity” of creating a Russian national digital currency.
Read ForkLog bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analytics.