In his speech, Trichet expressed doubts that the cryptocurrency may become the future of money at all: "I am determined against Bitcoin and I think we are a little reckless.
Trichet also pointed out that cryptocurrencies are acquired primarily for the purpose of speculation in their exchange rates, even if they are backed by real assets, which creates an "unhealthy" situation. As one example, he cited Libra's stablecoin being developed by Facebook, noting that he himself is more impressed by the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) issued by the International Monetary Fund. Like Libra, they were provided by a basket of currencies, including the U.S. dollar, euro and pound.
"I strongly doubt the possibility of maintaining control over the monetary value in the cryptocurrency space. In the so-called new stable international currencies, the SDR will be the correct basket," he added.
The former head of the ECB also admitted that cash may soon be out of circulation, but doubted that they would be replaced by cryptocurrencies.
Earlier, Mario Draghi made similar remarks. "Bitcoin and all such instruments, which are not currencies, are classified as assets. Euro is the euro today, tomorrow, in a month, always. The ECB is behind the euro. Who is behind the cryptocurrencies? Accordingly, these are very, very high-risk assets, the value of which, as you could see, varies greatly. Currently, they are not significant enough to influence our economy in a macro-context," he said.