- The executive of the issuing institute is concerned that the pace of regulatory efforts is not keeping up with the progress of businesses related to crypto assets in the country.
- The executive also believes the crisis of digital currencies ended up affecting the entire Canadian financial system.
- Although she believes that digital assets should be regulated immediately, she believes that it is still challenging to know the best way to do it.
The Bank of Canada expressed concerns about the quick adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptos in the country and the slow pace of efforts to regulate the crypto industry.
According to the senior deputy governor of the issuing bank, Carolyn Rogers: “this is an area that is still small but it's growing really rapidly. And it is largely unregulated," Reuters reported. She added that the Canadian monetary authorities do not want to wait until the trade and circulation of digital assets "gets a lot larger before we bring regulatory controls in place." The issuer is also concerned that a large part of Canadians are not fully aware of the risk involved in investing in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. She believes that regulatory efforts must be on a par with the direction of growth of digital currencies. According to the official, the problem increases as cryptocurrencies deepen their integration with the Canadian financial system. In her opinion, this raises the risk for the national financial system, especially in critical situations of digital assets such as the current one. In a report released this week, the Bank of Canada noted that the value of the global digital currency market rose from $200 billion in early 2020 to $3 trillion last year. On the Flipside In one year (2020 to 2021), the number of Canadians with BTC savings doubled from 5% to 13%. Two recent opinion surveys commissioned by KPMG in Canada showed growing consumer interest in buying cryptocurrencies and investing in crypto funds. At the beginning of April, the Investment Executive website collected statements from Kareem Sadek, blockchain expert and partner of the auditing and legal services firm, about these findings. “Retail investor interest in crypto assets started with early adopters years ago, and since then, we’ve seen a steady wave of institutional interest in the space – from pension funds and insurers to hedge funds and family offices.” He pointed out that almost a third of the people surveyed said they had "a direct or indirect exposure to the asset class," Sadek added. “They may not even understand that it is not a regulated area.” The executive of the Bank of Canada explains that “Like any asset that’s jumping around in price, people see an opportunity for quick gains.” And she noted that the bank’s concern is the possibility that Canadians are not understanding the risks of cryptocurrencies. “They may not even understand that it’s not a regulated area.” After the increase in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve and the other central banks of the world and the end of the fiscal stimulus policy, the appetite for high-risk assets in the market decreased. This caused the recent crypto winter that left many investors and DeFi companies on the brink of ruin and led to the collapse of projects like Terra – Luna. For Carolyn Rogers, the need to regulate the crypto industry is immediate. However, there is still no clarity or agreement on how this will be done. "These are somewhat like banking assets, somewhat like capital markets. One of the challenges is to figure out how do they fit in the current regime, and if they don't fit, how do we adjust the regime so that they will fit," the executive said.
