An ECB member says bitcoin does not fulfill the basic properties of money.

Isabel Schnabel, a board member with the European Central Bank, in a recent interview, said how she and her colleagues at ECB think “it is wrong to describe bitcoin as a currency.” The ECB member described bitcoin as a “speculative asset without any recognizable fundamental value and is subject to massive price swings.” Schnabel also surmises that trust in “cryptocurrencies might rapidly evaporate,” and this, in turn, causes “disruptions in financial markets.”

 Schnabel also remarked on ECB’s digital currency. 

The ECB member said a “great deal of preparatory work needs to be done to enable the project to be properly set up.” Schnabel also tries to justify claims that consumers would be more amenable to a digital currency issued by the ECB than one issued by private entities. She said, “Nobody can offer a similar degree of security and data protection as the ECB. People find that topic important: as consumers, to whom do we want to disclose our data? They are surely more likely to trust the ECB than Facebook or other private operators.”

Bitcoin breaks above $60,000 once again. 

Earlier today, bitcoin’s price crossed above the $61,000 mark for the first time as it reached another all-time high. Bitcoin has witnessed a massive winning rally this year and continues to break new all-time highs regularly. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands at just above $60,500. Though government officials have criticized bitcoin often, it did seem to have any impact on the growth of the cryptocurrency. The crypto industry has attracted major institutional investments this year, Tesla being the biggest one. The leading electric car maker had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in mid-January early this year.