Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are a threat to financial stability and a conduit for illegal activities, creating a “strong case for policy intervention”, Agustín Carstens said today (February 6).

As well as posing risks to consumers and investors, the anonymity of cryptocurrencies makes them useful for tax evasion, money laundering and criminal finance, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements told a conference at Goethe University in Frankfurt.

More fundamentally, the