Bitcoin garnered an array of fans with its price rise over the last couple of months. Prominent bank, HSBC, however, did seem to find an inclination towards the crypto-verse.
The crypto-verse witnessed exponential growth since the beginning of the year. 2021, started off on a great note for the crypto market as its investors bagged massive gains. While BTC witnessed a five-fold increase, the altcoins did not fall back. The king coin’s market cap even hit a trillion dollars. All these factors urged banks as well as governments to embrace the crypto-verse, particularly Bitcoin. While banks like, Goldman Sachs went on to express their interest in crypto, the CEO of HSBC clarified that the bank would refrain from engaging in any crypto-related services.
HSBC’s CEO calls out the crypto market’s volatile nature
In a recent interview with Reuters, Noel Quinn, the CEO of Europe’s largest bank shared his views on crypto and even shed light on why HSBC hadn’t jumped onto the crypto bandwagon. Quinn went on to point out Bitcoin’s volatility and stated,
“Given the volatility, we are not into Bitcoin as an asset class, if our clients want to be there then of course they are, but we are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business.”
The debate about what Bitcoin really is had continued to persist. Adding on to the same, Quinn noted that BTC was more of an asset class as opposed to a “payments vehicle.” The volatile nature of the asset makes it difficult for it to find a prominent spot on the clients’ balance sheet, he added.
Additionally, speaking about central bank digital currencies [CBDC], Quinn suggested that it would be a good medium to simplify cross-bored payments. He said,
“CBDCs can facilitate international transactions in e-wallets more simply, they take out friction costs and they are likely to operate in a transparent manner and have strong attributes of stored value.”