CORE MAGAZINE January 2018 | Page 30

SPECIAL ARTICLES The central banks response to bitcoin and cryptocurrency T he Group of 7 (G7) accounts for nearly two-thirds of global wealth and almost half of the global nominal GDP. G7 members include the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. Consider central banks response to bitcoin. Although the bitcoin and cryptocurrency market cap is 30 Core Magazine approaching $600 billion at the time of this writing (CoinMarketCap), this amount is still rather minuscule compared to the $263 trillion of net wealth belonging to the G7. However, due to the remarkable growth in cryptocurrency activity, especially in 2017, will the central banks of G7, China, and the European Union give it more serious