European Central Bank president says her son lost 60% of his investments trading crypto

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde revealed that her son lost money investing in cryptocurrency, according to Reuters on Nov. 24.

Lagarde said that her son lost “almost all” of his investments by trading cryptocurrency against her warnings. During an event, she said:

“He ignored me royally, which is his privilege … And he lost almost all the money that he had invested. It wasn’t a lot but he lost it all, he lost about 60% of it … So when I then had another talk with him about it, he reluctantly accepted that I was right.”

Lagarde added that she has a “very low opinion of cryptos.” She said that although people are free to invest and speculate in the area, they should not be allowed to take part in business and trade that involves criminal activity.

Lagarde addressed an students at an event in Frankfurt, Germany. The event was titled Euro20plus and was organized by Germany’s central bank, Deutsche Bundesbank.

Lagarde is involved in ECB policy

Lagarde is otherwise involved with many of the ECB’s other activities concerning the regulation of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and digital assets.

In November 2022, Lagarde advocated for an update to Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation called MiCA 2, which she said would be “broader [in] what it aims to regulate” than its precursor. MiCA applies to custodial wallets and exchanges and certain crypto assets and stablecoins. By contrast, MiCA 2 would address regulation of decentralized DeFi platforms and crypto assets without issuers, for example.

Though she had previously advocated for the MiCA 2 framework, Lagarde also discussed cited the then-recent collapse of FTX during that speech.

In October 2023, Lagarde issued a statement describing advances around the digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could provide a regulated alternative to cryptocurrency. She more broadly advocated for CBDCs in May 2023.