Bank of Canada’s Official: Crypto Needs Regulation Before It Becomes ‘a Lot Larger’

Bank of Canada’s senior deputy governor says the central bank does not want to wait until crypto “gets a lot larger” before it brings regulatory controls in place. “This is an area that is still small, but it’s growing really rapidly,” the official said.

Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers talked about cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Reuters Thursday.

“This is an area that is still small, but it’s growing really rapidly. And it is largely unregulated,” she explained, adding:

We don’t want to wait until it gets a lot larger before we bring regulatory controls in place.

The total crypto market capitalization has fallen to below $1 trillion following Monday’s sell-off. According to data from Bitcoin.com Markets, the total market cap of the entire crypto market is approximately $918 billion at the time of writing.

According to Canada’s central bank, the share of Canadians who own bitcoin more than doubled to 13% in 2021 from 5% in 2020.

“Like any asset that’s jumping around in price, people see an opportunity for quick gains,” Rogers added, elaborating:

Our concern is they may not understand the risks. They may not even understand that it’s not a regulated area.

The senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada emphasized that the crypto industry needs to be regulated. “These are somewhat like banking assets, somewhat like capital markets,” she described.

However, Rogers pointed out that there are challenges, stating:

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.

What do you think about the comments by Bank of Canada’s senior deputy governor about crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.