The cryptocurrency market is double the size of the sub-prime debt market in the U.S. on the eve of the financial crisis—and it poses a threat unless urgently regulated, according to the Bank of England (BOE).
Crypto assets are now worth $2.3 trillion, about 200 percent more than at the start of the year. While that's still a small portion of the $250 trillion global financial system, it's about twice the size of the $1.2 trillion sub-prime real estate debt market in 2008.
"You don't have to account for a large proportion of the financial sector to trigger financial stability problems," BOE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said in a speech on Wednesday. "When something in the financial system is growing very fast, and growing in largely unregulated space, financial stability authorities have to sit up and take notice."
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