Irish Central Bank Chief Makhlouf ‘Very Concerned’ About Crypto

The Central Bank of Ireland is “very concerned” about the risks posed by unbacked cryptocurrencies to retail customers, its governor said.

Such assets offer “no social value whatsoever,” Gabriel Makhlouf told an Irish parliamentary committee on Wednesday, likening them to Ponzi schemes.

People are “essentially gambling” when investing in unbacked crytocurrencies, he said. “When you gamble you can win but most of the time when you gamble you’re actually losing. If people want to gamble we should let them gamble.”

“If you put your money into unbacked crypto you need to be prepared to lose all of it,” he added. ...