According to reports, the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Hammond has warned of investing in cryptocurrencies. He said, “This is money gambling,” and pointed out that “people should be very cautious” and “many people think they are closer to gaming than serious investment.” Nevertheless, he is currently a senior consultant for an encryption company.

Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer warns against investing in cryptocurrencies

According to reports, former British Prime Minister Lord Philip Hammond urged investors to be “extremely cautious” when investing in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Lord Hammond served as the Secretary of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, the Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2019, the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2016, and the Minister of Defense from 2011 to 2014. He joined the House of Lords in July last year.

When talking about whether you should invest in a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, he told the Daily Mail on Sunday: “If my family asks me, I think what I will do is make them pay attention to the fact that Large, well-established and well-established asset management companies are now becoming more and more complacent.” The former Chancellor of the Exchequer emphasized: “But it is declining-a small part of their asset base is exposed to highly volatile asset classes.” He add:

It is almost certainly not suitable as a retail investor in the mainstream investment category… it is money gambling. I think people should be very cautious. Many people think they are closer to games than serious investments.

“I know that many people have very little exposure to crypto assets, but they have written off the money,” he further thought.

Although Lord Hammond issued a warning about cryptocurrency investment, he served as a senior advisor to the cryptocurrency company Copper, which he joined in October. The company was valued at $3 billion last month and provided digital asset infrastructure for institutional clients, including traders, wealth management companies, private banks, crypto funds, and family offices.

Lord Hammond emphasized that he will not join a company that focuses on crypto investment. However, he pointed out that distributed ledger technology “will eventually cover all what we currently think of as financial services.” He clarified: “My job at Copper is to raise the profile of this debate and make sure people are aware of the huge opportunities here.”

The former Chancellor of Finance concluded:

We can seize the opportunity of new technologies and take advantage of the fact that no matter what some of our friends in Europe think, London is still the main financial service center of the European continent.

What do you think of Lord Hammond’s comments? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Kevin Helms

As a student of Austrian economics, Kevin discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, and the intersection of economics and cryptography.