Any attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin must be on a global scale as national or regional rules would be hard to enforce on a virtual, borderless community, a director at Germany’s central bank said recently.
National authorities across the globe, and particularly in Asia, have attempted to put the brakes on a global boom in the trading of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But Joachim Wuermeling, a member of the board of Germany’s Bundesbank, said national rules may struggle to contain a global phenomenon.
“Effective regulation of virtual currencies would therefore only be achievable through the greatest possible international cooperation, because the regulatory power of nation states is obviously limited,” he said at an event in Frankfurt.