European governments are pushing for bitcoin regulation as alarm grows that the world's most popular digital currency is being used by money launderers, drug traffickers and terrorists.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he will ask his counterparts in the Group of 20 nations — whose presidency falls to Argentina next year — to consider joint regulation of bitcoin. His concerns are shared by the Italian government, which would be open to discussing regulation, according to a government official in Rome who asked not to named since the move is not yet policy. The U.K. is also backing European Union moves to bring in new rules that would apply to bitcoin.
"I don't like it; it can hide activities such as drug trafficking and terrorism," Le Maire said on LCI television, adding that he also had concerns for savers. "There is an obvious speculative risk, we need to look at it, study it," he said.