As bitcoin prices suffer their deepest one-day decline in a month, Russia’s economic development minister is issuing a timely warning about the cryptocurrency’s infamous volatility levels.
In a talk at the World’s Festival of Youth in Sochi on Tuesday, Maksim Oreskin said bitcoin had characteristics that made it worse than casinos, state-backed Russian media outlet RT reported.
“As for bitcoin, if you look at how the value of this asset fluctuates, it’s dozens of percent up, then dozens of a percent down. An asset that can be available for an unqualified investor should not have such characteristics because it’s worse than casinos,” Oreskin said, according to RT. “First, you earn, then you will lose everything and be left with nothing,”
Oreskin’s comments came as bitcoin prices slid about 5% to $5,294 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. Prices reached $5,800 earlier this week thanks in part to the entry of even more Japanese yen into the market. They also come as Russia has sought to regulate bitcoin trading in a bid to stifle money laundering and tax evasion with the cryptocurrency.
