Bank of England governor Mark Carney has labelled Bitcoin’s ambition to be a legitimate currency as a “failure”.
Speaking at private event at London’s Regent’s University on Monday evening, Carney said the cryptocurrency is not considered as a medium of exchange or a store of value.
The volatility of Bitcoin’s value means that many retailers refuse to accept it as payment.
“It has pretty much failed thus far on… the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange,” he told students.
Video game platform Steam is among those to drop Bitcoin support in recent months, blaming high fees and its yo-yoing share price.
West Brom striker Hal Robson-Kanu meanwhile has backed the cryptocurrency revolution.
His company The Turmeric Co. – which makes health drinks featuring the spice Turmeric – started taking cryptocurrency payments at the end of 2017.
Research by card machine provider Paymentsense found that SME owners expect cryptocurrency payments on the high street within two years.
And Manchester-based law firm JMW has established a cryptocurrency investigations and prosecutions team in response to growing demand for legal services in this area.