The former International Monetary Fund chief’s comments on crypto are no surprise. Lagard has blasted cryptocurrencies citing concerns about the environmental impact of mining these tokens as well as their potential use in money laundering and sanctions evasion.
Her comments arrive at a time of amplified scrutiny surrounding the crypto market. The collapse of terraUSD, a controversial so-called stablecoin that was meant to always be worth $1 has made things worse for digital assets.
Several central banks are developing their own virtual alternatives to cash in response to the rapid adoption of digital currencies — the ECB being one of them. Lagarde said that a digital euro would be “vastly different” from private cryptocurrencies.
