Bitcoin Forum

he is the head of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), he said that crypto is a bubble and a Ponzi scheme that can create environmental damage. he also said that crypto does not have a positive potential to be a currency.
he also told and influence to the youth to stop creating money. he also said that the Bank provides electronic payment instruments for the future instead of crypto.
please share your opinion on this topic here!

Let him say the BSs. Who know and understand crypto they do not care about what they said.

It's obvious that crypto rise will harm the traditional banking system. If traditional banking system does not exists then governments will have less power. So banks combined with government will always try to stop Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Seems like Agustin Carstens is afraid of such competition that has threaten banks a lot. As the head of a bank, he needs to put a stand within his organization. No matter what he says people need the option and has their own free will to choose what they like to use.

You should also ask taxi drivers what they think of Uber and Autonomous cars, you'll get a similar response.
Just because this dude wears a suit and cabbies don't doesn't make his opinion less biased and untrue.
In fact we should celebrate the fact that he's taking his time in spewing this crap, it shows he's afraid.

most banks so far have been this "aggressive" towards bitcoin. have you forgotten JP Morgan in 2017 where they kept bashing bitcoin and were calling it "fraud" whilst buying bitcoin in each dip?

that has been the story of bitcoin for the past 8-9 years (basically ever since it gained value people were FUDing it). the banks specifically are so scared of bitcoin because they have always feared that bitcoin is going to make them obsolete one day. and that day is approaching fast.

Can you share a link were he said that. I find it hard to believe the head of the bank of international settlements, would call bitcoin a 'bubble', when's bubble is a period and not the commodity itself, or how he would classify it as a ponzi scheme. This are very asinine arguments against bitcoin, and should not be coming from financially astute individuals. Except it is just a witch Hunt.

For influential individual like the head of the Bank of International Settlements to sit down and discuss about cryptocurrency it means cryptocurrency is making impact in the world financial system. it does not matter if He is making negative comment, His comment will indirectly draw  the  attention of so many to cryptocurrency.

He is a banker, modern bank is a fraud and they are fighting to keep their corrupt empire. They don't want youth to print their own money, but they are printing legalized counterfeit. These economic cartels know the truth but they are scared to face reality. Time shall tell.

Maybe they should stop inflating the crap out of our fiat currencies. ::)

When you contrast your quickly devaluing dollars to cryptocurrencies with predictably low or zero inflation, it's hard to take his arguments seriously. We can't trust banks to secure our money and we can't trust governments not to devalue it. These are vitally important use cases in a world where people trust banks less and less everyday.

We should not care about what he says. This guy is just a general manager on the Swiss bank. Two things are important here: 1. Carstens expresses his personal opinion, it's not an official statement from the bank. And general manager is not the most important job in the bank. 2. Even if the bank opposed it, Swiss is a country with substantial independance of the cantons. And the canton of Zug is pro-crypto enough not to take about other regions. And besides, it's not up to banks to form official policies regarding cryptocurrencies.
There's an article on CCN that is referring to a speech by this guy: https://www.ccn.com/agustin-carstens-banks-should-not-issue-digital-currencies. What the op wrote is present in the article, so Carstens probably said it.

Is being more aggressive towards something a viable trait? Does it distinguish him from the crowd of bear naysayers in any way?
He's repeating the same points other people are, and being more vocal about it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't bring anything new to the discussion.
I guess now every head of a bank (which we have thousands around the world) is going to become more and more aggressive to get publicity. What a sad world we're living in.

I see they are really trying their best to talk down bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It’s obvious the banks are afraid of what might happen to them if bitcoin continues to go in this trend of growth such that very soon they won’t be able to handle it any longer. New innovations should be allowed and supported instead of goin againts it. This alone tells a lot about the banks and government on what they are up to.

isn't the bold part enough to show what everyone's opinion about this is?!

maybe each time one of  these banksters tries spreading nonsense about bitcoin someone should remind them about what they did to the world's economy multiple times, specifically in 2008 which then led to creation of bitcoin so that people have an alternative way that they can not control and corrupt.

The truth is that many people fear cryptocurrencies because they are simply losing control and people are leaning towards the new blockchain technology because it is more secure, efficient and empowers people, no matter how much resistance there is, to the At the end of the war the cryptocurrencies will win because they perfectly fit the needs of the market.

Well I think this is the way of cebtral bank to try to sabotage crypto and its a normal thing for me, central bank is afraid of crypto, so they spread rumours and everything to stop bitcoin adoption and development, if bitcoin is a ponzi then no investors will want to buy and hold, the truth is bitcoin had already help so many people financially and make a lot of people rich, it is hard to explain bitcoin to someone who doesn't want to open their mind, just let it be, one day the person will realise how great and useful is bitcoin

It is not a new news, he is one of some other people in this world who tries to fight against the existence of crypto. His saying does not give affect the popularity of bitcoin or crypto in general. So lets just ignore this kind of FUD, no need to share it too much.

Let him say all the BS he wants to as if people really do care about of him talking nonsense. If he really wants to prove something then he must have to show it not to say it and spreading nonsensical point of view just because he doesn't like it.

I will like to read his views on 2008 global recession and failure of the Lehman's brother. Whole banking was ponzi that's why they all need the bailout packages in past.
Bank should work on adoption of new technology and should not comment on the topics in which they are not qualified.

i think it is about time that we as a decentralized community start a campaign about banks letting people in the world know how corrupted they are, and more importantly how they have been damaging the country's currency by inflating it beyond reasonable levels.

I don't know if he's giving those statements because of ignorance or just mere smear campaign towards the usage of crypto. If he truly understands the concept of cryptocurrencies, given the fact that he's an educated individual, then I would say he would not be saying things like that. And to be honest, even if they continue to reject the idea of crypto, still mass adoption continues and the integration of blockchain technology, company after company will happen.

He's the Head of bank and as what we can see, crypto is somehow giving that 'threat' to the bank. And as a person who works at bank, its inevitable for them to disagree with crypto and they will really try their best to say negative things and brainwash other peoples mind, for them not to believe in crypto.

What do you expect? He is banker. Obviously, he will attack crypto every time he has give the. chance to open his mouth during interviews.


Youths of today (millennials), are very opinionated, and wouldn't just listen to someone. So there's nothing to be afraid it, the more they attack crypto, the more they look like they are desperate because they know that crypto will take over in the next 5-10 years.

Agustin Carstens should not be afraid of Bitcoin, but rather the coins being developed by the R3 Consortium of Banks. Mike Hearn and his team has been working on Corda for some time now and they are targeting the settlement market.

His anger and fear is targeted at the wrong technology, because BIS will be disrupted by Banks and not by Bitcoin. Just shows you how misinformed these people are. The enemy of our enemy is our friend.  ;D

Lol. A banker. Of course he'll say those things about btc, i'm not expecting anything less. He's the same with warren buffet and they're just doing what they think is beneficial to their industry. People are saying that bitcoin will make banks obsolete in time and though i don't think they take that seriously, they're making precations by trying to bring btc down.

Agustin is right in his own way because the bank have through created digital platforms on they banking system but the question how effective and how high is the fees charge per transaction and compares it with cryptocurrency fees also. And the speed of transactions what about the Tran's border access.

Carstens is just an individual and I don't think the opinion of a single individual really matters in this industry. Otherwise the ilks of McAfee would've brought Bitcoin on its knees a long time ago. Not even China with its ban could do that. For all I care, let him FUD. It doesn't really matter. Bitcoin will definitely get its push up once again.

I thought such statements were over once the price had risen to $ 20,000 and maintained the rise for more than 9 years. One of the longest bubbles in the world.
Also, whenever there is a discussion where you can not find a problem, you accuse it of environmental damage. "Although many banks are financing environmental companies seriously."


Banks can provide more payment tools than Bitcoin, but they will not be global, faster and less fee. The challenge now is price volatility, not technology.

I think he is one of the people who doesn't open-minded for a new change. He is a banker, he is head of the BIS, he should learn many things related to financial including technology financial. He should aware that the world is now changing from the traditional era into the digital era which will affect the traditional financial.

He can say whatever he wants to says but as the head of one bank, he needs to be wise to give a statement and investigate first before he says. That is what happens now, many people can say anything about crypto but the crypto will survive.

By the way, this is the news of Agustin Carstens:

1. Agustin Carstens Warns Against Central Banks Issuing Virtual Currencies (https://ambcrypto.com/bitcoin-btc-critic-agustin-carstens-warns-against-central-banks-issuing-virtual-currencies/)
2. Banks Should Not Issue Digital Currencies (https://www.ccn.com/agustin-carstens-banks-should-not-issue-digital-currencies)

If you ask me he is represents a small majority of extremely rich people who want to become even richer, and all this at the expense of small ordinary people. Whatever he or someone like him says negative in terms of cryptocurrency, this should be seen as a common misunderstanding or defense of old values. Imagine how much he is intelligent when he say "bitcoin is an environmental disaster", based on what fact?

It would be better for him to start a healthy life, otherwise it will not survive more then 10 years. I would say he is bigger environmental disaster for this planet then bitcoin, based on fact how much resource he is using, and how much waste it produces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_Carstens

First of all, Warren Buffet doesn't necessarily reject crypto. I think that his main point is that bitcoin is not an investment, because it doesn't generate returns on equity like what businesses do, and have an actual operating business model. He has said the same thing regarding gold as an investment.

What Carsten has said though is somewhat different. Apart from the bubble accusation, which would be true if applied to a 2017 context, what he's saying is purely stuff that has been debunked over and over again, yet people still seem to be pushing. The environmental and ponzi accusations have been repeated over and over already.

Also, I think it's interesting that he essentially admits bitcoin has the transaction processing capability, whilst denying that there is any value to a system that can do this in a decentralised way. Of course though, it is important to see the reason why he may have made these comments - there is an obvious conflict of interest in terms of what the BIS is doing, and what settlements on decentralised blockchains like bitcoin can do.

When did he say stuff about Bitcoin being a bubble and being bad for the environment? His most recent statements were only warning banks from issuing their own "crypto" because it could reduce the demand for cash.

He is in a position of power, so it's possible he could influence crypto in a much more direct way unlike run-of-the-mill rich people like Warren Buffet, but these recent statements shouldn't be a problem for crypto at all. It might actually be better for the community if banks followed his warning.

This is my first time to ever heard of the name of this man and I think that with his position and stand against Bitcoin then soon he can be creating a name for himself outside of the world he is playing with. I am not anymore surprised why there will always be people in the world of finance who can be strongly against Bitcoin because in the first these people do not possess the full understanding of cryptocurrency and secondly these people will be trying to use their influence and clout to make sure of the status quo. However, we know that eventually cryptocurrency and the blockchain are two unstoppable trains...there might be some challenges and there is a possibility of big delays but things will later on be good for cryptocurrency in general. Let the man speak whatever he wanted to speak...maybe he also have some points actually.

They have always being saying it that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are scam and ponzi scheme simply because they can not control it, the bank will for ever be against decentralization because the bank will never be able to print bitcoin and other cryptocurrency because it runs on the blockchain.

hey people
you lot do realise that agustin said about the bubble A YEAR AGO
right when there was a bubble spike in bitcoin

in short. old news. boring, outdated

some educated people sometimes always has different perceptions of crypto, he is a very influential person for the banking world, and I think he is worried that the bank will be replaced by a blockchain, he compares banks and crypto, he says the bank will also provide electronic payment instruments.

he also advised the government that the government must increase protection for investors and consumers.

no problem, for me this is important information, today, I already know the list of some people who created FUD for the crypto world. and in my country, I often socialize to spread the crypto world to the public, and I can convey to the public about this information.