Felipe Medalla (the governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central banking system) shared his views on cryptocurrency in an interview published Friday.
Medalla was asked, “What is your opinion on cryptocurrency?” He responded:
It shouldn’t be banned. But, I don’t think it should be called cryptocurrency.
According to the central bank governor, cryptocurrency is ‘not used for actual payments’ because it’s volatile. He suggested that cryptocurrency be called ‘crypto assets’ to emphasize the fact that currency can’t be volatile.
Medalla then attacked bitcoin’s environmental impacts, saying that it is “bad for the environment” because of the fact that miners consume more electricity than some countries.
He said that crypto is a “good thing” since it ‘is an alternative to government in countries with so much economic and financial repression. The central banker said that crypto is also useful in avoiding monitoring by the government. He added that this raises the question of what social benefits it can achieve.
Medalla stated that although the government may not be perfect in all cases, it is contributing to the common welfare.
Because of what I said, my opinion is that its value may be too high.
The central banker of the Philippines spoke about the cryptocurrency market crash. “It’s already happened that it has collapsed. Right? Right?
My advice is to never invest money you can’t afford to lose if you are going to purchase this.
Medalla stated that the Philippine central bank’s crypto policy was not intended to be used to evade anti-money laundering.
He said that exchanges are ‘where crypto assets are exchanged for bank deposits or currency’. It is the policy of the central bank to enforce all the rules necessary to prevent money laundering, particularly to finance criminals.
