ECB officials claimed that BTC’s rally will make non-holders and latecomers poor.  The crypto community criticized the report that called for a policy against BTC. 

Over the weekend, the European Central Bank (ECB) hit the headlines following its top officials’ anti-Bitcoin [BTC] report and calls for its ‘disappearance.’ They claimed the BTC price surge would lead to wealth redistribution from latecomers and non-holders to early adopters. According to the report, this would impoverish latecomers and holders, as early adopters would dominate holdings and wealth. 

Source: SSRN

According to ECB officials Jurgen Schaff and Ulrich Bindseil, non-holders should advocate for anti-BTC policies or campaign for it to ‘disappear’ altogether. Part of their research read,  “In any case, current non-holders should realise that they have compelling reasons to oppose Bitcoin and advocate for legislation against it, aiming to prevent Bitcoin prices from rising or to see Bitcoin disappear altogether.”  Is the ECB declaring war on BTC? The crypto community slammed the report, while some warned it could signal the ECB’s war on BTC. Tuur Demeester, a BTC analyst, claimed that the research was ECB’s declaration of war on the digital asset. He stated,  “This new paper is a true declaration of war: the ECB claims that early #bitcoin adopters steal economic value from latecomers. I strongly believe authorities will use this luddite argument to enact harsh taxes or bans.” Demeester cited the push by the authors for legislation as one of the compelling reasons for his projection.  “Then they go on to brazenly advocate for legislation … “to prevent bitcoin prices from rising or to see bitcoin disappear altogether” in order to prevent “the division of society.”

Source: SSRN

On his part, Max Keiser, a BTC maximalist and senior advisor to El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele on all matters Bitcoin, referred to the report as the ECB’s ‘failed IQ test’ on the digital asset.  “Bitcoin is an IQ test. The ECB failed.”  Well, this wasn’t the first time the regulator has criticized BTC. In February 2024, it stated that the asset had no intrinsic value and was a bubble that would eventually burst and cause massive social damage.  Later in June, Fabio Panetta, a former ECB executive and current Governor of the Bank of Italy, called for other banks to block crypto as it was bound to fail. In fact, the regulator even criticized the US move to approve spot BTC ETFs in Q1 2024.  That said, some viewed the regulator’s anti-BTC thesis as an acknowledgment of the asset’s future explosive run. According to Plan C, a market analyst, BTC was the solution to the regulator’s money printing (inflation) as a global easing cycle begins.  “This new ECB paper also contains a hidden signal: ECB knows for a fact that “Bitcoin will rise for good” because ECB knows for a fact that central banks will have to start printing ungodly amounts of money soon, and forever.”

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