Swazi Observer

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STANDARD BANK CE WARNS AGAINST BITCOIN, OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES

By Hlengiwe Ndlovu | 2018-03-13

WITH the promise of excessively high returns, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have undoubtedly swept many locals off their feet.

Even though not many people openly speak about the cryptocurrency, Standard Bank Chief Executive Mvuselelo Fakudze yesterday strongly warned against investing with Bitcoin or other cyrptocurrencies for that matter.

“It is amazing how even wealthy and sophisticated individuals have already been conned of huge amounts of money in this cryptocurrencies investors,” he said, also observing that ahuge percentage of people appear willing to take the risk of losing their money in them. “I personally would never recommend for anyone to invest in Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency for that matter.

The amazing thing with Bitcoin is that to date, nobody exactly knows what or who is behind Bitcoin. So if you don’t know the person you are investing your money with, why pump in large amounts of money and hope to recover your investments? How can that possibly happen,” Fakudze wondered, also confessing that he would never personally invest in Bitcoin. He would rather invest in property, a bank or stock exchange listed companies and never in cryptocurrencies.

He also advised people to take cue from the negative comments made by wealthy individuals such as Warren Buffet against cryptocurrencies. “People out there should be circumspect and be careful of these high risk and high return investments. If it is too good to be true, it probably is,” cautioned Fakudze.

He also advised that banks were stable and that in Swaziland, for instance, no bank had ever closed down. He said even with Barclays Banks departure, government had made swift interventions to ensure that the effects were cushioned.

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