RBA predicts cryptocurrency surge will end

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“Households may be less influenced by fashions and fear of missing out and may begin to pay more attention to warnings from securities regulators and consumer protection agencies in many countries about the risks of ‘invest in something with no issuer, no support and very uncertain. value.”

Mr Richards said the power consumption of the supercomputers used to create Bitcoin and Ethereum was equivalent to that of the world’s 13th largest economy. Bitcoin alone uses the same amount of energy as Thailand.

Tony Richards of the RBA says surveys showing 20% ​​of Australians hold cryptocurrency seem implausible.Credit:Louise Kennerley

He said there would likely be even more emphasis on the near anonymity offered by cryptocurrencies, which is of growing concern to authorities.

“Tax authorities and agencies tasked with preventing financial crime could pay more attention to transactions passing through the entry and exit ramps connecting cryptocurrencies to the traditional financial sector,” he said.

“If there were to be global political action to deal with some particular concerns regarding the use of cryptocurrencies, as well as the arrival of new stablecoins and new central bank digital currencies that could safely respond to the needs of a wide range of users, then existing cryptocurrencies could have only niche use cases at best.

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“If this is the case – and also reflecting that the relevant code is often open source, publicly available and easily copied – it seems plausible that the current valuations of many cryptocurrencies will not be sustained. “

Unlike cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are usually tied to a widely used asset such as the US dollar to reduce the volatility of the overnight value. They also tend to have assets behind them.

Mr Richards said there must be substantial doubt about investigations showing large ownership here or abroad in cryptocurrencies.

Comparing cyrpto’s online surveys with the RBA’s own survey of consumer use of the payment system, Mr Richards said the bank is looking to ensure it captures the hard-to-measure parts of the community such as the elderly or those in regional areas.

Claims that up to 20% of the Australian population hold cryptocurrencies have not accrued.

“I have to say that I find these statistics somewhat implausible. Some of the estimates available are extremely surprising and may be symptomatic of the significant amount of hype and misinformation in this area, ”he said.

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