EU Lawmaker Johan Van Overtveldt Compares Crypto To Drugs, Calls For Ban

[Bitcoinmoon12]

Former Belgian Finance Minister and Member of the European Parliament (EP), Johan Van Overtveldt, has called for a ban on cryptocurrencies to ease the current banking crisis. In a tweet on his personal account, Van Overtveldt stated that the crypto asset industry “does not bring any economic or social value.” CoinDesk reported that his comments were made as the EP prepares to vote on regulations regarding crypto activities.


“Another lesson to be learned from the current banking commotion. Enforce a strict ban on cryptocurrencies. Speculative poison and no economic or social added value. If a government bans drugs, it should also ban cryptos,” wrote Van Overtveldt.

He believes that banks are in crisis due to the impact of cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the EU parliamentarian assumes that all cryptocurrencies are pure speculative assets and have no economic or social value. Van Overtveldt even compared cryptocurrencies to drugs.

Read more: https://azcoinnews.com/eu-lawmaker-johan-van-overtveldt-compares-crypto-to-drugs-calls-for-ban.html

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[Charles-Tim]

Because of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank in the United States, Johan Van Overtveldt wants total ban for cryptocurrencies.

If regulation is the cause of the banks that collapsed, they were unable to take care of fiat organizations which they strictly control, but he wants cryptocurrencies to be banned. Or how is crypto similar to banks or fiat?

Why can't he wants all banks to be banned because of the collapse? 

I have always thought those that read and are public figure use to make people not to fall fall the road, but I can see some of them like this man to mislead people, also many of them.

He was even Belgium’s former finance/fiat minister. My conclusion is that he knows nothing about crypto, and likely a bitcoin and crypto critic.

[Jawhead999]

The main reason why banks are collapsed because corruption, mismanagement and any other internal problems.

If the banks' employee want to invest in crypto using their customers money, they need to know if crypto are mostly scam and of course they need to make sure to invest what they can afford to lose only. Banning the whole crypto including Bitcoin is a wrong decision because it's the fault from their employee for choosing a bad coin.

Anyway if many people tend to choose to store their wealth in Bitcoin, not in fiat, they just can tax the Bitcoin to make more money, not to ban it.

[kryptqnick]

Some people make comments precisely to get publicity, to get attention to themselves and capitalize on that attention. It doesn't mean that these people are truly influential or that their words mean much. I've looked at his Twitter, and he seems to be a firm believer in the banking system, but also in regulating banks more strictly to ensure that bankruptcies happen less often. So he's more of a believer in central banks, and that certainly goes against Bitcoin ideologically because Bitcoin shows that we might not need central banks. Still, it's very unfair to say cryptos don't have any social or economic value and to compare it to drugs. Drugs affect human bodies and communities, whereas Bitcoin is as neutral as it gets.

[DapanasFruit]

I have been following the news on the ongoing banking turmoil in the USA right now...and many experts are telling us that the main problem has something to do with the rising interest imposed by the Fed all because many of these collapsed banks exposed big on bonds where they encountered big losses. As far as crypto is concerned, the exposure is not that so big and even if they are exposed and they know how to balance risks they could have avoided their collapse. Proposing a blanket ban on cryptocurrency is not a good one...the government should be banning scams, frauds and similar schemes but above-the-board cryptocurrencies should be allowed to flourish under a strict regulation.

[Nwada001]

It's really shocking how a former financial minister who is supposed to know or have little knowledge in almost every aspect of finance is really comparing crypto to drugs and at the same time pointing finger at crypto currency as the major reason behind the bank failure. That's a ridiculous way of thinking, and while others are fighting for total regulation for the entire crypto, he is proposing a total ban. It's really funny how they always decide who to blame for their failed policies but never admit their own errors. 

Both financial systems serve their own purposes; the banks should function on their own with their government policies and regulations, and they should allow us to use our crypto. 

Even with the government having control over the banking sector, the banks are still experiencing bankruptcy.Maybe they also want to control cryptography and pilot it to failure. 

[LoyceMobile]

Banks are in crisis because they are the problem.

[Upgrade00]

It's ironic saying banks are in crisis because of cryptocurrencies when Bitcoin was introduced during the aftermath of a bank/economic crisis, which was not the first.

He was even Belgium’s former finance/fiat minister. My conclusion is that he knows nothing about crypto, and likely a bitcoin and crypto critic.

He could know a lot about crypto and about how fiat is a broken system, but doesn't want to admit that to people but would look for a soft target to blame.

[Dickiy]

Drugs if used properly or as a function will have a positive impact and if there is misuse it will have a bad impact, it's the same as crypto, fiat currency, and your knife at home if used according to its utility it will give an output of benefits and if In the wrong use it will have a bad impact.
They corner crypto as in their thinking people save more money in crypto than banks so that deposits in banks are shrinking, so they think that what causes the liquidity of money in banks is little.
Even though the main indication is that interest rates have risen to suppress inflation, even they also create inflation because they print too much money.
It would make sense for investors to withdraw money from banks and switch to storing it in bitcoins.

[348Judah]

Maybe he's yet to discover the meaning behind a decentr network like bitcoin, how can he oush forward to leae the request for a ban on bitcoin? Who will create the ban? how will they? They can ban other cryptocurrencies from existing since they were centralized but on these he can't achieve a successful attempts because he's too small to do so and even the government couldn't, that's why he needs to think well about what a decentralized network means before making noise around appealing for ban, many have attempted such before and failed.

[Ever-young]

To me all this influencer and government agencies are just against crypto because they don't have control over it and to benefit from it they need regulate it and when it's been regulated maybe a financial minister for all crypto currency affairs will be appointed 😂
Just so crazy, they will never know when to stop accusing crypto for their failure and incompetency. But sorry to shock them they more they try to push their blame over to crypto the stronger the crypto community is becoming.

Banks are in crisis because they are the problem.

A problem they will never admit to, or will I say they are too blind to see their own problem.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

This fucknut's comments are obviously illogical and inflammatory, but the sad thing is that this is what people are going to read and there's not going to be a counter-opinion presented.  Politicians and those in power have the ear of the press and the pissants in crypto who know this guy is full of shit don't.

The Winklevoss twins or the CEOs of any of the big exchanges ought to hold their own press conference as a sort of debate.  When people only hear one side of the story (and it sounds like he's just grandstanding on his own), most are too lazy and/or indifferent to look into things any further and so laws like this can just pass without any opposition.

What a motherfucker.

[Darker45]

He's barking at the wrong tree. I have to admit that this man's crazy ideas may not appear insane and illogical to some, but it's only because this is something that we can easily observe among us in many aspects of life.

The current banking system is rotten and unsustainable. Without employing shady means, it simply can't last long. But when it finally collapses, the blame is directed at something else. They are quick to raise pointing fingers at alternatives. Rather than inward evaluation, they are quickly scanning for any disruptive force outside.

Speaking of drugs, a very common initiative or perhaps one of the main approaches to curb its spread here in my country is surprise drug testing. I can liken this to Van Overtveldt's absurdity. In all honesty, that doesn't address the problem. It barks the wrong tree.

[DeathAngel]

They’re scared aren’t they!

Every time these people open their mouths, all I see is fear. The fiat system is unravelling, you can’t taper a ponzi. Banks are collapsing & all they can do to try & fix it is more QE. Money printer go brrrrr.

Bitcoin is going to eat investor capital over the next two decades. It’s really interesting to be alive to witness tgis happen (obviously even better to profit on it).

[LoyceMobile]

Did he forget banks collapsed long before Bitcoin existed?

[tjtonmoy]

This is just another lame excuse in order to bring down something they can't control. Who says Bitcoin has no economic or social value? For personal use or used by Government, both holds a great impact when in comes to economy.
It's not helping the economy directly because it's not a legal currency, but indirectly it is doing a great job. Governments are unable to provide jobs, while bitcoin is giving a great opportunity to those unemployed people.
Just because they can't control it makes it bad, and when they adapt to BTC it will be the best thing in the world to them. Such hypocrites.

[jrrsparkles]

Generally people can't accept their mistakes so they will look for someone to put the blame so they can feel ease, banks are the only reason for the banking crisis cause they printed lot of money now the value of money is getting lower and lower, some banks even called for bankruptcy but how they can point towards bitcoin or cryptocurrency for their own mistakes.

Or someone with no common sense will comment like this to create some attention for their political benefits and nothing really beneficial for the people.

[NotATether]

How does banning crypto fix banks??

Did he forget banks collapsed long before Bitcoin existed?

Banks can never be fixed, unless you change their business model to something besides "fractional reserve", and also the obsolete infrastructure which they have been sitting on for several decades.

[justdimin]

Former Belgian Finance Minister and Member of the European Parliament (EP), Johan Van Overtveldt, has called for a ban on cryptocurrencies to ease the current banking crisis. In a tweet on his personal account, Van Overtveldt stated that the crypto asset industry “does not bring any economic or social value.” CoinDesk reported that his comments were made as the EP prepares to vote on regulations regarding crypto activities.

Lol, these people have absolutely no idea how any of this work do they? I mean it is really funny to me that they would be considering to ban bitcoin at a time when many people are avoiding banks and going into bitcoin because they trust bitcoin more than they trust these banks.

I get that they want people to go back to banking, because that way there would be a lot of money in the banks and they wouldn't crash, that is what they believe in and that is why banning bitcoin makes sense for them. But the reality is that we are not going to see that happen because you can't ban bitcoin, you can ban the use of it, but you can't ban it because we will just use p2p and still continue.

[tbct_mt2]

Lol, these people have absolutely no idea how any of this work do they? I mean it is really funny to me that they would be considering to ban bitcoin at a time when many people are avoiding banks and going into bitcoin because they trust bitcoin more than they trust these banks.

If they can not successfully improve their bank system and fix it, they will have to find alternatives to indirectly protect their rotten bank system. They have to build up as many barriers as possible in order to prevent as many people changing from bank system to Bitcoin transactions or cryptocurrency transactions.

I don't think they will succeed completely but some people who naively belief in what they saw, what they heard will be against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Some people in society will co-use bank system, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency because fact is we can not exclude bank transfers in our lives. Many activities and payments must be done by bank system.

I get that they want people to go back to banking, because that way there would be a lot of money in the banks and they wouldn't crash

Bank runs come and go and will return. Each time it will cause bank collapses but it won't change how society need bank and use it. However, I don't think any impact from banning Bitcoin or cryptocurrency to prevent bank collapse. It happened in the past when there was no blockchain, no Bitcoin, no cryptocurrency and banks collapsed by their dead weakness.