French finance minister calls for bitcoin regulation debate at G20

Bitcoin’s prices have risen more than 1,700 per cent since the start of the year


Reuters December 18, 2017
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire delivers a speech as he attends a working session during the One Planet Summit at the Seine Musicale center in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France, December 12, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS

France will propose that the G20 group of major economies discuss regulation of the bitcoin virtual currency next year, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.

“I am going to propose to the next G20 president, Argentina, that at the G20 summit in April we have a discussion all together on the question of bitcoin,” Le Maire told French news channel LCI.

'Bitcoin was explicitly designed to be digital gold'

“There is evidently a risk of speculation. We need to consider and examine this and see how (...) with all the other G20 members we can regulate bitcoin.”

Bitcoin’s prices have risen more than 1,700 per cent since the start of the year, triggering worries that the market is a bubble that could burst in spectacular fashion.

Bitcoin aims for $10,000 as it rockets to record high

European Union states and legislators agreed on Friday on stricter rules to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing on exchange platforms for bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

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