The European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has repeated her insistence that global regulators need to tighten the rules to ensure Bitcoin (BTC) falls under more coordinated oversight.
In an interview at the Reuters Next conference — amid an unprecedented bull market for the veteran cryptocurrency — Lagarde argued:
“[Bitcoin] is a highly speculative asset, which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.”
While Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous, its distributed nature and complex interaction with jurisdictional regulatory frameworks present a challenge for international authorities. During the interview, Lagarde did not reportedly refer to any specific instances of money laundering involving Bitcoin, but instead alluded to her awareness of various criminal investigations into illegal activities connected with its usage. She told reporters:
“There has to be regulation. This has to be applied and agreed upon […] at a global level because if there is an escape that escape
