Australia’s most powerful banker has ruled out Bitcoin playing any significant role in the economy – despite hitting a record high – because she doesn’t understand it.
The cryptocurrency is now trading at A$139,000 as investors get excited about Bitcoin enthusiast Donald Trump becoming the next US president, with a plan to accumulate cryptocurrencies for strategic purposes.
But Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock has said she doesn’t understand the fuss.
‘It’s not a coin, it’s not money. “It’s being used as a kind of asset class,” he said at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s annual forum on Thursday.
‘I don’t understand. I don’t really see any role for it, certainly in the Australian economy or the payments system. I’m not sure the purpose of this.
Bullock also dismissed the idea that Bitcoin could be an alternative currency.
‘Don’t call it alternative currency. “It’s not,” he said, shaking his head, adding that the price increase was simply a case of “more buyers than sellers.”
ASIC chairman Joseph Longo was equally scathing, describing the lawsuit as the “silliest theory” and saying: “who cares?” during a roundtable discussion on price increases.
Australia’s most powerful banker has ruled out Bitcoin playing a significant role in the economy, despite hitting a record high, because she doesn’t understand it.
“It’s something that came out of nowhere,” he said.
“The environmental impact of the creation of Bitcoin, to create those things, all the power of small European countries is used.”
In July, President Trump promised to build a national strategic reserve of Bitcoin, treating it as a government-issued currency.
“I’m laying out my plan to ensure that America is the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world and we will get there,” he said.
Raphael Arndt, president of the federal government’s Future Fund, questioned the wisdom of Americans having a strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies.
“If I were the controller of the world’s reserve currency and could print as much as I wanted, and had a budget deficit from what I could see, I’m not sure why I would want a strategic reserve of any currency, much less one I didn’t control I didn’t even understand,” he said.
Bitcoin has risen 25 percent, from $103,000, since Trump’s election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock Said She Didn’t Understand the Bitcoin Fuss
Nick Forster, an Australian Wall Street trader who co-founded Lyra, a decentralized financial platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, predicted last week that Bitcoin could be worth A$155,000 by the end of 2024.
“If Donald Trump were to win the presidency, the markets could recover significantly,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“Such a victory could catalyze this movement that reflects investors’ anticipation of possible regulatory changes or economic policies favoring the crypto market.”
Bullock’s rejection of Bitcoin stands in stark contrast to his predecessor Philip Lowe’s signal in December 2021 that he supported the idea of a digital retail currency.
Cryptocurrencies allow people to pay each other directly without needing a bank account.
Decentralized finance also means that money can be exchanged without the need for a central bank to oversee the payments system that governs how banks handle transactions.