Do you want to roll the big dice? HSBC says: no don’t do it. Even the Chinese Government want to look greener.
HSBC will not be offering Bitcoin as an asset class anytime soon, according to comments made by the bank’s chief executive Noel Quinn.
The British banking businessman, who was appointed CEO of the HSBC Group in March 2020, told Reuters that the bank is “not into Bitcoin as an asset class” due to the cryptocurrency’s “volatility”.
“We are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business,” he said, adding that, “for similar reasons”, the bank is “not rushing into stablecoins”.
Quinn’s comments come as Bitcoin fell from this year’s record high of over £45,000 to just over £26,000, tumbling almost 50%.
Meanwhile, China, where roughly 65% of all mining globally is based, announced a crackdown on mining and trading behaviour, forcing cryptocurrency exchange platforms to suspend operations. Although Quinn made no mention of China in his comments, recent events might have influenced HSBC’s decision due to the country being inherent to the bank’s growth strategy, according to Reuters.