European Central Bank repeats its 2012 stance on digital currencies

At a speech in Rome yesterday, Yves Mersch of the European Central Bank reiterated the bank’s stance on cryptocurrencies from 2012, but warned that such currencies should not be ignored.

Essentially, Mersch’s comments were that digital currencies were still too small to be of any consequence at the moment — a key part of the Virtual Currency Schemes report from October 2012, when bitcoins were trading for tens of dollars.

“Many media commentators have been wondering what impact these currencies will have on retail payments and even on central banks,” he said. “I agree that virtual currency schemes are an interesting phenomenon and should not be ignored or dismissed.”

A year and a half after the above report, this is really the first we’ve heard from the ECB on digital currencies.