European Central Financial institution President Christine Lagarde introduced earlier this week that she is going to step down on February 7, 2027, about eight months earlier than her time period is scheduled to finish.
The previous IMF chief has led the ECB since November 2019, a interval throughout which she grew to become one of the outstanding critics of Bitcoin and crypto amongst world central bankers.
Value Nothing
Her hostility towards BTC and the broader market dates again to January 2021. On the time, she spoke on the Reuters Subsequent convention and described the most important cryptocurrency as a “extremely speculative asset” and accused it of facilitating humorous enterprise in addition to cash laundering, regardless that we all know that the general public blockchain permits everybody to hint every transaction. Not like banks.
She additionally argued that regulation needed to be coordinated globally as a result of such loopholes would inevitably be exploited. One among her strongest statements got here in 2022 when she stated crypto belongings had been “value nothing” and had been “primarily based on nothing.” She claimed that there was no underlying asset or construction offering an anchor of security. She additionally warned that inexperienced traders might undergo main losses and contrasted non-public cryptocurrencies with a future digital euro backed by the ECB.
There was some irony to this, although. Lagarde revealed that one in every of her sons had invested in crypto regardless of her a number of warnings. By late 2023, she stated he had misplaced round 60% of his funding, prompting him to “reluctantly” concede that she had been proper.
Her stance remained strongly in opposition to BTC at the same time as its institutional adoption accelerated over the previous few years.
No Bitcoin Reserves
Rewinding the clock to 2021, Lagarde asserted that the prospects of central banks holding Bitcoin had been “out of the query” and rejected the concept the asset constituted a real forex. That place grew to become significantly related in January 2025, when Czech Nationwide Financial institution Governor Ales Michl floated the potential for learning Bitcoin as a part of the nation’s reserves.
Lagarde responded that reserve belongings wanted to be liquid, safe, and secure, whereas avoiding money-laundering issues. She stated she was assured that Bitcoin wouldn’t enter the reserves of any central financial institution represented on the ECB’s Normal Council.
Even in a 2026 interview with The Wall Road Journal, her view remained largely the identical. Though she praised distributed ledger know-how as modern, she drew a pointy distinction between the tech and cryptocurrencies, describing the precise belongings as speculative. As soon as once more, she stated they’re value nothing.
All of her views have remained anti-Bitcoin, so maybe, simply maybe, her departure could possibly be excellent news for the business.
The submit Christine Lagarde Is Leaving the ECB: Right here’s What She Actually Thought About Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoPotato.