Former U.K. chancellor of the exchequer Lord Hammond has reportedly warned about investing in cryptocurrencies. He said, “It’s gambling money,” noting that “people should be extremely cautious” and “Many regard them as closer to gaming than serious investing.” Nonetheless, he is currently serving as a senior advisor to a crypto firm.
Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer warns against investing in cryptocurrency
Former British Chancellor Lord Philip Hammond has reportedly urged investors to be “extremely careful” when investing in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether.
Lord Hammond was a U.K. cabinet minister who served as the chancellor of the exchequer from 2016 to 2019, foreign secretary from 2014 to 2016, and defense secretary from 2011 to 2014. He joined the House of Lords in July last year.
Commenting on whether to invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, he told the Mail on Sunday: Now their toes are digging deeper and deeper. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer stressed: “But it’s putting one toe down – it’s a tiny fraction of their asset base exposed to what is a very volatile asset class.” He added:
It’s almost certainly not suitable for retail investors as a mainstream investment category … It’s gambling money. I think people should be extremely cautious. Many regard them as closer to gaming than serious investing.
“I know a lot of people who have a little exposure to crypto assets, but it’s money that they wrote off,” he added.
Even though Lord Hammond warned about cryptocurrency investing, he has taken a role as a senior advisor at crypto firm Copper, which he joined in October. The firm, valued at $3 billion last month, provides digital asset infrastructure to institutional clients, including traders, wealth managers, private banks, crypto funds, and family offices.
Lord Hammond pointed out that he would not have joined a company that focuses on crypto investing. He noted that distributed ledger technology, however, “will eventually encompass all of what we currently think of as financial services.” He clarified, “My job with Copper is to raise the profile of this debate, to make sure people are aware that there is a huge opportunity here.
The former chancellor of the exchequer concluded:
We can seize the opportunities of new technologies and take advantage of the fact that, whatever some of our European friends may think, London remains the dominant financial services center on the European continent.
