The battle to control crypto

Send us a text

Cryptocurrencies have had a rough time of late but they are clearly no flash in the pan. That has driven regulators to intensify their efforts to gain control over this financial frontier.

The Bank of England’s deputy governor this week sounded a warning that if the crypto world wasn’t brought under control soon, it risked suffering its own Hindenberg moment, referring to the time the famous German airship exploded ending, perhaps prematurely, the development of what could have been a useful technology.

Of course, there have already been explosions in the crypto markets but regulators are keen to find a way to bring stability to their more useful parts to allow them to flourish. We look at who is trying to bring which bits of crypto to heel and how they plan to do it.

Banks have a big part to play in this too. Following the recent release of the ECB’s climate stress test for the lenders it regulates, we discuss how banks’ involvement in the notoriously energy-hungry crypto markets should be done with the aim of greening it as it develops.

We also investigate the latest turmoil in Italian politics. Prime minister Mario Draghi offered to resign this week, sending Italian sovereign debt yields and spreads to Bunds higher, just as his former employer the European Central Bank is expected to reveal its new tool for keeping those very numbers under control. We take a look at what this means for Italy and how SSA borrowers will adapt their funding tactics to cope with ever more frequent disruption — this was not after all the first shock of the week with US inflation coming in above expectations at 9.1%.