German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has taken a hard-hitting stance at Libra, Facebook’s cryptocurrency project. After participating in a meeting in which the G7 countries met, in part, to discuss crypto regulation, Mr. Scholz issued a statement in which he called Libra ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’.
Nonetheless, finance ministers and central bank bosses from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Canada have strongly called for the need to regulate digital assets.
As per the latest coverage on global crypto regulation, finance officials and central bankers from G7 nations have expressed a strong desire to regulate cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Treasury Department shared this development in a statement after the virtual meeting. The verbiage reads:
There is strong support across the G7 on the need to regulate digital currencies
This unanimous agreement to regulate crypto assets stems from their rising popularity. And the prohibition of their use in illicit activities. It came up after a discussion of ‘ongoing responses’ to
the evolving landscape of crypto assets and other digital assets and national authorities’ work to prevent their use for malign purposes and illicit activities
While the G7 nations discussed crypto regulation, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz didn’t lose any opportunity in criticizing Libra (renamed to Diem). Mr. Scholz is heavily against the launch of Facebook’s cryptocurrency in Europe and Germany.
He went as far as to say that Libra is ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, and it will always remain one. He further added that:
It is clear to me that Germany and Europe cannot and will not accept its entry into the market while the regulatory risks are not adequately addressed.We must do everything possible to make sure the currency monopoly remains in the hands of states.”
The G7 nations do believe that the future of finance is digital. And they have already mutually agreed to support digital payments. This becomes clear from the U.S. Treasury Department’s statement, whose opening reads:
The widespread adoption of digital payments has the potential to address frictions in existing payment systems by improving access to financial services, reducing inefficiencies, and lowering costs.
But this can only happen if the crypto assets used for payments are “appropriately supervised and regulated.”
From what it seems, the argument clearly points fingers at the stablecoin ecosystem – the $25 billion market that consists of fiat-collateralized digital currencies privately issued by crypto exchanges like Bitfinex, Binance, and others.