Technology: The president of the European Central Bank on Wednesday called for global regulation of Bitcoin, saying the digital currency has been used in some cases for money laundering activities.

At the beginning of the week, the price of Bitcoin fell by 20% after setting record after record since the end of 2020, crossing $ 40,000 on January 8. This Friday, the price of Bitcoin stood at nearly $ 39,000 in the morning, in sharp rebound since January 12.

The recent surge began at the end of October with the launch of a cryptocurrency buying, selling and payment service by online payments giant PayPal.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, however, on Wednesday called for global regulation of Bitcoin, saying the digital currency had been used in some cases for money laundering activities and any loopholes must be closed. The blockchain hack brought in about three billion dollars last year.

Borrowing to invest in cryptocurrencies?

A strong speech while bitcoin is in recent years out of its niche and is now bought by more and more individuals and companies. Reuters says that some no longer hesitate to borrow to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin "is a highly speculative asset, which has made it possible to do 'funny business' and totally reprehensible money laundering activities," Lagarde said, without giving details. We must apply it and agree on this point... at the global level because if there is a loophole, that loophole will be used," she adds.

Last September, French authorities arrested 29 people suspected of participating in a financing network linked to terrorist groups based in Syria. The money flowed through cryptocurrency coupons sold freely and anonymously in tobacco shops.

Christine Lagarde also believes that the digital euro should become a reality within 5 years. The most requested feature for a digital euro is the confidentiality of payments, according to an ECB public inquiry. The institute also intends to respond to the launch of global private means of payment such as Libra, the cryptocurrency project launched by Facebook, and those adopted by other central banks such as the Chinese cryptoyuan with global ambitions.

One of the difficulties caused by the disintermediation of financial exchanges

The recent surge in the price of Bitcoin this week highlighted one of the difficulties caused by the disintermediation of financial exchanges. Stefan Thomas, a German developer based in San Francisco, can no longer find the password of his digital wallet of Bitcoin which now represents, given the rise in prices, $ 220 million, reports the New York Times. The programmer had written it down on a piece of paper in 2011... before misplacing it. At the beginning of the week, he had only two tests left out of the ten allowed. Beyond that, his wallet will become inaccessible forever.

Wallet Recovery Services, which helps users find their lost digital keys, is seeing an increase in the number of requests. She claims to receive 70 a day, three times more than a month ago.

According to cybersecurity and cryptocurrency platform Chainalysis, about 20% of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin is lost or blocked. That's $140 billion, at the current price of Bitcoin.