Steven Mnuchin, former Secretary of the Treasury in the US, recently expressed his views about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets. In an interview with CNBC, Mnuchin said that he is not planning to add BTC to his investment portfolio.
“If people want to buy Bitcoin as a substitute, no different than buying gold or some other asset, it’s fine. I don’t personally want to have it in my portfolio but if people want to, that’s perfectly fine,” Mnuchin told CNBC.
During his time at the office, the US Treasury Department proposed strict cryptocurrency regulations in the country. In December 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) requested comments on proposed requirements for certain transactions involving Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The latest comments from Mnuchin came after Bitcoin lost nearly 50% of its value in the last 8 weeks. The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading near $60,000 in May 2021 and dropped gradually to a low of approximately $28,000 on 22 June.
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“Bitcoin has popped back to $32.8k after falling to $31.7k earlier for the first time since June 26th. As cryptocurrency’s top market cap asset continues to trade in a price range, traders are watching for an uptick in unique addresses interacting on the BTC network,” the crypto analytics platform, Santiment commented about the latest volatility in the price of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Regulations
During the latest interview, Mnuchin highlighted the importance of a clear regulatory environment for BTC and cryptocurrency transactions in the country. “Under the OCC last year, we approved that the banks can custody crypto assets. The reason we did that because we wanted to make sure that Bitcoin comes into the regulated world. So, my real focus is, if people want to buy Bitcoin that’s fine but it should be in the regulated world,” Mnuchin added.
Last month, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, JPMorgan’s global market strategist, said that the institutional interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets has dried up.
