by Chris Becker
Here come the regulators. From the Guardian:
The UK’s markets regulator has proposed a ban on financial instruments linked to digital cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, warning that such products could cause huge losses for retail consumers unlikely to understand their risks or value.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said products such as derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that reference crypto-assets were “ill-suited” to small investors.
Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “As with our work on the wider CFD and binary options markets, we will act when we see poor products being sold to retail consumers. These are complex contracts built on top of complex assets.
“Most consumers cannot reliably value derivatives based on unregulated crypto-assets. Prices are extremely volatile and as we have seen globally, financial crime in crypto-asset markets can lead to sudden and unexpected losses.
“It is therefore clear to us that these derivatives and exchange traded notes are unsuitable investments for retail consumers.”
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has raced back up to $12000USD, or nearly 20% from its Monday morning bottom after some epic volatility (and still adhering to classical technical analysis principles):
In other news, regulators said there’s no problem with investment banks playing with multi-trillion dollar derivatives.