France and Germany call for a bitcoin market to be subject to strict global control

Joining the choir of regulators calling for suppression of cryptocurrencies, French and German finance ministers said that they "could pose serious risks to investors" and even threaten and long-term financial stability.

In a letter to the G20 finance ministers - signed by the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire and his temporary German counterpart Peter Altmaier as well as the heads of central banks of both countries - they said that cryptocurrencies now have "limited" implications for the stability of global finances.

• Given the rapid increase in capitalization of tokens and the emergence of new financial instruments based on them, they should be closely monitored - ministers said.
  They underlined that cryptocurrencies "are now largely misidentified as" currencies "in the media and the Internet," adding that the "lack of transparency" in the nature of tokens "can only fuel speculation."

They also called for greater protection for retail investors speculating in cryptocurrencies, saying that it could have detrimental consequences for uninformed investors who "do not understand the risks they are exposed to".