Cryptocurrencies are investment asset and can not perform the function of money, as they can not be considered a good means of payment, a unit of account or a means of saving.

Agustín Carstens, the new head of the Bank for International Settlements, which is responsible for cooperation between central banks of different countries, and also conducts economic and monetary researches, voiced out his negative forecast for cryptocurrencies. Carstens reiterated that cryptocurrencies are a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an ecological disaster, and the excitement around them is caused by their novelty and the ability to quickly make money from nothing.

"The hype came about because this was something completely new and because you could ostensibly make sure-fire profits in a short space of time. But if you look at them closely, cryptocurrencies are, in a nutshell, a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster - the latter because of the high energy consumption needed to run the infrastructure for these cryptocurrencies."

At the same time, Karstens emphasized that it is necessary to separate cryptocurrencies from the blockchain technology which they are based on.

"It is important to draw a clear distinction between the underlying technology, such as blockchain, and cryptocurrencies per se. The technology may have useful applications."

He recalled that the idea of ​​creating gold or money from nothing had always attracted people. Even Isaac Newton was studying alchemy, but later he changed his opinion, headed the British Mint and began sending counterfeiters to prison.

"Glance back into the past and you will see that creating gold or money from nothing has been a regular obsession. It never worked. Even the great physicist Isaac Newton was at one point in his life obsessed by alchemy and the idea of making gold. He was very successful in a number of fields, but in this one he failed. Newton ended up as head of the British Mint. Why? Because he could detect at once if a coin was counterfeit. After he failed in his attempt to make gold, he switched sides and sent counterfeiters to prison. So my message to young people would be: Stop trying to create money!"