UK Central Bank Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden: Crypto Is Not a Store of Value

Dave Ramsden, deputy governor of the United Kingdom’s central bank, has said that crypto assets are too volatile to be a store of value. Ramsden made his comments in an interview with CNBC published on April 30.

Bank of England (BOE) deputy governor Ramsden noted that over a year ago, the U.K.’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) had concluded that cryptocurrencies’ volatility meant that they could not be a store of value. Furthermore, the FPC also came to the conclusion that cryptos are not a practical medium of exchange because the cost of the transactions was too high.

Ramsden told CNBC that the FPC declared that cryptocurrencies do not meet the definition of a currency, noting that because of the small size of their market, they don’t pose a threat to financial stability. In the interview, he stated that the FPC’s conclusions still stand today.

This January, another BOE employee — Huw van Steenis, senior adviser to BOE Governor Mark Carney — said that cryptocurrencies fail basic financial tests.

In contrast, in response to a BOE Twitter survey about the preferred form of currency to receive a Christmas gift last December, 70% of respondents said they would prefer digital currency.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Corporate Traveller, the largest travel management firm in the U.K., is now accepting bitcoin (BTC) for payments.

Also this month, Cointelegraph wrote that Afghanistan and Tunisia’s central banks are looking to issue a bitcoin bond.