Irish central bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf called on legislators to ban cryptocurrency firms from advertising digital assets to young adults, reports revealed.
The longstanding crypto critic slammed digital coins not backed by underlying assets as Ponzi schemes. Despite this, he claimed they posed a small risk to financial stability but could negatively impact retail customers.
Speaking further, Makhlouf explained to an Irish parliamentary committee that there was a number of young adults that had invested in crypto. There was also an “uncomfortable level of advertising” targeting the group.
“I would recommend that adverts to that cohort are banned,” he said.
He added: “Unbacked crypto is essentially a Ponzi scheme… People who put their money into unbacked crypto, and most of the significant stock of crypto out there is unbacked, they are essentially gambling. When you gamble you can win, but most of the time when you gamble, you’re actually losing.”
MiCA and EU Crypto Markets
The European Central Bank governing councillor urged EU regulators to impose “guardrails” for emerging stablecoins. These types of coins include central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and provide stable trading values.
In July, European lawmakers passed rules requiring cryptocurrency firms to obtain licences and customer safeguards to buy and sell digital currencies across the bloc.
Regulators in Brussels called the cryptocurrency market the “Wild West.” To date, the EU aims to pass regulations to fight fraud and money laundering, among others. Parliament passed the deal at the time as its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) law.
