On 1 November, 2019 Christine Lagarde takes on the role of President of the European Central Bank (ECB). I am predicting that under her leadership the ECB will seek to develop a digital EUR. This is almost a certainty. A stretch prediction is that some cryptocurrencies (at least BTC and ETH) will become part (ok a very small part (initially)) of the official reserves of the ECB.
This first prediction is not original, Forbes Magazine has already hinted at this prediction. However, it is not that difficult to get to that same conclusion by looking at what the IMF have been saying under Ms Lagarde’s leadership over the past few years.
It is clear that she is at the very least is open to the importance and hope of crypto and she is also no ‘yes man’. Money Week magazine referred to her recently as a Killer Shark. She will need to be if she is to bring on an progressive agenda of crypto adoption in such a political environment as the ECB.
As a sideshow, it will be fascinating to watch the dual with the current head of the Bank For International Settlement (BIS), Augustin Carstens, who was strongly opposed to cryptocurrencies not too long ago…although even he seems to have changed his view over recent months.
So just think of this…
1. we have Facebook (and a number of other big tech’s) looking at crypto.
3. we have an arms race developing amongst all central banks to be the first to issue Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC Yes…it has its own acronym!)
4. we have the technology being built already for the past +10 years by a huge community of freedom loving entrepreneurs.
Any fund manager not researching this space at this point in time is asleep at the wheel. What a time to be alive and invested in this space!