Australia’s Central Bank Says Bitcoin ‘Not Really Money,’ No Risk to Financial Stability

The Reserve Bank of Australia has delivered somewhat dismissive comments on bitcoin (BTC) at a meeting of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics.

According to a report by the Australian Financial Review on Friday, the central bank’s assistant governor for financial systems, Michelle Bullock, said there’s “a lot of fuss over bitcoin.”

The comments were a response to Queensland Liberal National Party member Julian Simmonds, who’d asked the assistant governor if the bank viewed bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a financial risk.

“[Bitcoin] is not a payment instrument and it’s not even really money,” said Bullock. “I think there is a lot of fuss about it as a potential asset.”

Bullock said she didn’t see bitcoin volatility as a risk to the market – a view that was echoed by Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe.

“[Bitcoin] is a risk to investors but its not a financial stability risk,” Lowe said.

Bullock noted that issues being broadcasted more prominently revolved around stablecoin regulation.

“Facebook is putting out diem [formerly libra], there is a lot of discussion about this. We are engaged with other regulators about this,” said Bullock in the report.

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“With those sorts of coins nothing will happen until the regulators are happy,” she warned.