European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde called cryptocurrency 'worthless' during an interview on a Dutch talk show that aired on Sunday. Lagarde also called on global policymakers to put rules in place around crypto to protect inexperienced investors. Crypto's influence on companies around the world continues to grow, despite a recent drop in the overall value of the crypto market. Tom Wheelwright, CEO of WeathAbility, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.

Closing Bell

European Central Bank Presidents Call Crypto 'Worthless' as Crypto Takes Over World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting

the president of Europe's Central Bank saying crypto is worthless. Christine Lagarde making those comments during an interview on a dutch talk show that aired over the weekend. Lagarde also called on global policymakers to put rules in place around crypto to protect inexperienced investors. The comments comments, Kryptos influence on companies around the world continues to grow despite a recent drop in the overall value of the crypto market joining me now is Tom Wheelwright c of the financial consultancy wealth ability. Tom thanks for coming on the show. This is a pretty stark warning to new investors. Does the Ec three presidents comments have weight here? I think the President would like crypto to be worthless, frankly, because I think they have a tough time controlling it. So, uh you know, do investors isn't volatile? Absolutely. Um Do they want to regulate it? Of course they want to regulate it. But the US dollar is basically based on nothing too. So it's pretty hard to say, well, the Euro and the U. S. Dollar, which are both based on nothing other than taxpayers ability to repay um is somehow better than Cryptocurrency. So here's a question. Um what is your own interest in crypto at wealth ability? Do you own crypto outright? Are you trying to educate inexperienced investors about why crypto may benefit them? Well, I I do own crypto I I think everybody, you know, should have a little bit at least I think Crypto will either go to zero. For example, Bitcoin will either go to zero. It'll go to 3,000,002 million. It's gonna go one way or the other and it's more likely to go up and down from everything I know we're just a financial education company. We don't care whether you own Bitcoin or not, we don't we don't trade anybody's money, we don't handle anybody's money were really about the financial education piece and making sure people understand both. Um you know the the how crypto actually works, how Blockchain works and how the tax consequences work as well? Uh Well certainly I would consider Christine Lagarde part of the global elite and at Davos in Davos Switzerland now right where all of the global elite have to send it on as they do in every normal year to talk about big ideas. Crypto is a pretty hot topic. What is this signifying? What are you making of some of the conversations about Cryptocurrency coming out of Davos so far, all I can think is, you know Cryptocurrency is decentralized, right? So it's not controllable and I think that scares them frankly, I think they would like a digital currency that they could control and I think that that Davos likes, you know that these world leaders, they the elite, they like to be able to control things and this is something they can't control. And I frankly I think it frightens them somewhat. I think it's actually encouraging to people who operate in the Blockchain marketplace to see that they actually do care about it because it means it's risen to that level where the biggest leaders in the world care do you think it's a good time to buy? Cryptocurrency Fidelity, recently adding it as an option to your 401k. The price of Bitcoin steel down more than half from its high back in november. Should investors consider buying in? You know, that's a that's a question for smarter people than me? Um you know, it could go, it could just as easily go down, another you know, 15,000 $15,000 for example, for Bitcoin as it could go up $15,000 in the next year. So who knows what happens? I I think it's a little dangerous to put in your for one case, quite frankly, because of its volatility. I think for one case are looking for stable growth and stable um assets and crypto is certainly not very stable as we've seen over the last few weeks. Mhm. Another question that I have for you is we're still waiting on regulations, more regulations to come to this Cryptocurrency market, tom do you expect that we'll get any of those regulations this year. And what might they be? I think the easiest way to regulate is going to be in the tax area. We're seeing we do have regulations coming next year, 2023 that there are going to be reporting requirements for Cryptocurrency people like coin base and other exchanges are going to have to report Cryptocurrency transactions right now. The I. R. S, for example, is taking a very hard line. They're actually saying any money that goes into your account and any money that comes out of your account could be taxable and you have to prove otherwise. So I think I think the regulations are going to become heavy first from the tax people. Okay. We got to leave it there at Tom Wheelwright, C P A and C. E. O of wealth ability at tom Thanks for coming on the show.