Li Bo, the recently appointed vice president of the Bank of China (PBOC), made a public statement on Sunday about the potential benefits of cryptocurrencies as an investment.
According to the information quoted by journalist Colin Wu, Li Bo said, “We believe bitcoin and stablecoins are encrypted assets,” and added:
“Crypto assets are an investment option. It is not a money in itself but an investment product. China continues to work on regulatory policies for cryptocurrencies. […] We believe that crypto assets should play an important role in the future as an investment vehicle or as an alternative investment. ”
Li Bo also talked about how regulatory uncertainty in China could affect crypto’s potential as an investment vehicle, referring to the bank’s ban on ICOs and local crypto exchanges. He said that if any regulatory changes are investigated, PBoC will “continue to preserve existing measures and practices” that it had already implemented for now.
The vice president of the central bank also commented that stablecoins need to be regulated more tightly than other types of cryptocurrencies. According to Li Bo, if any stablecoin hopes to become a widely used payment instrument, it should be strictly regulated, just like banks or bank-like financial institutions.
Contrary to the words of the former PBoC president Zhou Xiaochua, speaking at the Boao Forum, Li Bo made more remarkable statements. Zhou Xiaochuan said he thinks digital assets should serve the real economy, while cryptocurrencies have nothing to do with the real economy.