Given the sharp price fluctuations in the Bitcoin warns now also the German financial supervision before the digital currency.
"These are highly speculative transactions with the possibility of total loss," said the president of the supervisory authority BaFin, Felix Hufeld, the "Bild" newspaper (Saturday). There would be "excesses that would produce bitter losers." Hufeld therefore advises caution. An investor must know "that in the worst case he can lose all his money." The head of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) announced that his authority must "stay close to the ball", but also spoke of a major learning task. "We are all in the process of understanding this area and building up know-how.
Two large US exchanges have now launched futures on the Bitcoin - so the crypto currency has arrived in the classic financial world. Since the beginning of the year, the Bitcoin, which is traded on platforms on the Internet, massively increased in value from about $ 1,000 to nearly $ 20,000, just before Christmas rushed towards $ 12,000. The higher the price rose, the louder were admonishing voices from politics and central banks. In recent days politicians and economists have called for regulation of Bitcoin.
Only recently, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann had criticized the Bitcoin violently. "It's speculative, you can lose money with it," said Weidmann on Monday evening in Frankfurt. Describing Bitcoin as a "digital currency", Germany's top currency guardian is misleading: "A form of payment should have a stable value - these qualities are missing from the Bitcoin." However, Weidmann explicitly opposed regulation from a monetary policy perspective.