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European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said that bitcoin is “highly speculative” and needs to be regulated.

Speaking at the Reuters Next conference on Wednesday, Lagarde said bitcoin has conducted “some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.”

“And there has to be regulations and this has to be applied and agreed upon,” at a global level, said Lagarde. “If there is an escape, that escape will be used. So I think […] global cooperation and multilateral action is absolutely needed, whether it is initiated by the G-7, moved into the G-20 and then enlarged […] And the FATF is clearly an organization that has expanded in that respect.”

This is a developing story and will be updated…

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Billionaire investor Howard Marks has said that his son Andrew owns “a meaningful amount” of bitcoin for the family.

Revealing the news in the latest client memo published Monday, Marks said despite Andrew’s bitcoin investment, his skeptical view on crypto has not changed yet.

“The natural state for the value investor is one of skepticism,” said Marks, co-founder, and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management. “Our default reaction is to be deeply dubious when we hear ‘this time it’s different,’ and we point to a history of speculative manias and financial innovations that left behind significant carnage. It’s this skepticism that reduces the value investor’s probability of losing money.”

Marks, who manages client assets worth more than $140 billion, further said that he is not yet fully informed to form a firm view on cryptocurrencies and is striving to learn more about the space.

The value investor has previously called bitcoin “a pyramid scheme.” He then, at the time, went on to compare cryptocurrencies to the Tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720, and the internet bubble of 1999-2000.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Ribbit Capital and Paradigm.

Announcing the news on Tuesday, CoinSwitch said this is the first crypto-related investment of Ribbit Capital in India and Paradigm’s first in the country in general.

The Series A also saw participation from CoinSwitch’s existing investor Sequoia Capital India and angel investor Kunal Shah, the founder of Indian credit card management startup CRED.

CoinSwitch said the funding would go towards expanding its product, security, compliance, and tech capabilities, without disclosing any specific details. CoinSwitch co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal wasn’t available for comments.

CoinSwitch was founded in 2017 as a global aggregator of crypto exchanges. Last June, it launched India-specific crypto trading platform CoinSwitch Kuber. Within seven months of the launch, the exchange operator claims to have over one million users. It expects to have 10 million users “in the next one year.”

Ribbit Capital’s general partner Nick Shalek said CoinSwitch “can become a generational technology brand in India.” The venture capital firm’s current crypto portfolio includes companies like Coinbase, Chainalysis, and Diem (formerly Libra).

Paradigm’s Matt Huang and Arjun Balaji said, “India could be one of the largest global crypto markets,” and that CoinSwitch’s team has “potential to build a market leader in the years to come.”

Funding activity in India’s crypto space has picked up in recent months. Last month, crypto exchange CoinDCX raised $13.9 million in Series B. Crypto exchange Unocoin also recently raised $3.5 million in Series A.

Crypto in India is currently a grey area. The country’s government hasn’t released any legislation or guidance on the legal status of cryptocurrencies. Recently, there were reports that the government is looking to ban crypto trading. Legal and regulatory experts have previously told The Block that if ban discussions take place, the process would be long and time-consuming.

Crypto exchange operators, however, have appeared less concerned. They said at the time that they are confident the government would consult with relevant stakeholders prior to reaching a decision.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Each month The Block Research hosts a private analyst call for its research members. To kick off the new year, we opened the call publicly for the first time.

The call explored key takeaways from The Block’s 2021 Digital Asset Outlook Report and an open Q&A section.

Topics included:

• State of the Market
• 2021 DeFi Outlook
• Stablecoins and CBDCs
• Public and Private Market Activity
• Other Thematic Trends

If you want to get quickly up to speed on the 10 biggest developments that solidified the future of digital assets in 2020, check out our interactive 2020 Year in Review. If you want to read an in-depth summary of all the trends that The Block Research team has covered this year and the outlook for 2021, you can do so here.

You can view the analyst call in its entirety below. The associated slides can be accessed here.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.