European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will step down in February 2027 after years of criticizing Bitcoin. She called it highly speculative, said crypto was worth nothing and ruled out central-bank reserves.
Christine Lagarde will step down as ECB president on February 7, 2027, about eight months before her term is scheduled to end. The former IMF chief has led the bank since November 2019, and during that time she became one of the most prominent critics of Bitcoin and crypto among global central bank officials.
Criticism starts in January 2021
Her hostility toward BTC and the broader market dates back to January 2021. At the Reuters Next conference, she described the largest cryptocurrency as a highly speculative asset and accused it of facilitating money laundering. CryptoPotato notes that the public blockchain lets everyone trace each transaction.
She also argued that regulation had to be coordinated globally because such loopholes would inevitably be exploited. In 2022, according to CryptoPotato, she said crypto assets were "worth nothing" and based on nothing.
Warnings on losses and a family twist
Lagarde warned that inexperienced investors could suffer major losses. She contrasted private cryptocurrencies with a future digital euro backed by the ECB.
Yet one of her sons had invested in crypto despite her multiple warnings. By late 2023, she said he had lost around 60% of his investment, prompting him to reluctantly concede that she had been right.
No place for Bitcoin in reserves
In 2021, Lagarde asserted that central banks holding Bitcoin was out of the question and rejected the idea that the asset constituted a genuine currency. That position became particularly relevant in January 2025, when Czech National Bank Governor Ales Michl floated the possibility of studying Bitcoin as part of the country's reserves.
Her stance stayed strongly against BTC even as institutional adoption accelerated over the past few years.
Source: CryptoPotato
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