A French finance minister has thrown his “total and determined support” behind crypto, Finance Magnates reported. Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire expressed his support for digital currencies at an event with entrepreneurs in France.
“I was a neophyte a year ago, but now I’m passionate,” Le Maire said at the event. “It took me a year. Let us teach our fellow citizens to make France the first place of blockchain and active crypto innovation in Europe.”
Still, he believes there needs to be a professional system for evaluating initial coin offerings (ICOs). And he also believes in taxation that is derived from a “single lump sum.”
And Switzerland’s government has asked for a study to look into offering a state-backed digital currency, Reuters reported. The currency, which is referred to as an “e-franc,” would use similar technology to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Switzerland is hardly the only country that has been looking into launching its own cryptocurrency backed by the state. Sweden’s Riksbank, for example, has said that having an “e-crown” could help alleviate problems surrounding a decline in the use of cash and create stronger payment systems.
In other news, a popular cryptocurrency convention didn’t cause bitcoin to rise as expected, MarketWatch reported. “It’s still looking a bit soft and vulnerable,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda. “Given that it’s a sentiment-driven market and things have been so quiet, it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw it head below $8,000.” The price of bitcoin was $8,071.05 as of 6:48 p.m. on Thursday (May 17), according to CoinDesk.
And in China, a new index found that Ethereum is the No. 1 public blockchain in the country, Reuters reported. By comparison, bitcoin is ranked 13th per the Global Public Chain Assessment Index released by the Chinese government. The Index evaluates several aspects of blockchains, such as their usefulness, capability and innovation.
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