The Bank of England has called for “enhanced” regulations of crypto to address potential risk to the country’s financial stability amid the market capitalization dropping more than $2 billion.
In the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee report on financial stability for July, the central bank said factors including the growth of the crypto market and climate change did not pose an “immediate threat” to the United Kingdom’s financial system, but had the potential to do so in the future. The committee noted that recent events in the space including extreme price volatility among cryptocurrencies, “liquidity mismatches,” weakening investor confidence in stablecoins, and “leveraged positions being unwound” could threaten financial stability if left unchecked.
“Unless addressed, systemic risks would emerge if cryptoasset activity, and its interconnectedness with the wider financial system, continued to develop,” said the BoE report. “This underscores the need for enhanced regulatory and law enforcement frameworks to address developments in these markets and activities.”
Our latest Financial Stability Report sets out what we are doing to make sure the UK’s financial system stays strong. https://t.co/HrpZV9ufUm #FinancialStabilityReport pic.twitter.com/4M8Lb2IHhQ
— Bank of England (@bankofengland) July 5, 2022
According to the report, a “number of vulnerabilities” within the crypto space were similar to those that had previously been a part of instances of instability in traditional finance, leading to the market capitalization dropping from roughly $3 trillion in 2021 to less than $900 billion at the time of publication. Since its last report in December 2021, the committee said it had supported the Financial Stability Board coordinating its approach to “unbacked cryptoassets” with international authorities and accepted authorities considering crypto as a possible means for Russia to evade sanctions.
In a Tuesday press conference on the committee’s report, BoE governor Andrew Bailey reiterated that recent market forces had not changed his views on “unbacked” crypto not posing an imminent threat to the financial system. The central bank’s deputy governor for financial stability Jon Cunliffe added the recent price drop of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) hadn’t had a noticeable impact on the country’s financial system, suggesting the crypto market isn’t at a size to significantly affect…
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