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Dutch Finance Minister Warns Citizens of Cryptocurrencies' High Risks

© AP Photo / Egill BjarnasonIn this photo taken on Jan. 17, 2018, a worker walks along a row of computer rigs that run around the clock 'mining' bitcoin inside the Genesis Mining cryptocurrency mine in Keflavik, Iceland
In this photo taken on Jan. 17, 2018, a worker walks along a row of computer rigs that run around the clock 'mining' bitcoin inside the Genesis Mining cryptocurrency mine in Keflavik, Iceland - Sputnik International
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Dutch government warns the country's citizens of high and insufficiently studied risks associated with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the country's finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said.

"Investing in cryptocurrencies is not without risk. In contrast to savings, money put into cryptocurrencies does not fall under a deposit guarantee system and there is generally no central issuer to claim from in the event of abuse," the country's finance minister Wopke Hoekstra told the country's parliament, as quoted by the Dutchnews.nl portal.

The minister said he would study options to hedge the risks. The government is considering a ban on advertising of risky financial products targeting non-professional investors, Hoekstra noted.

The minister also intends to oblige financial institutions to warn consumers of the risks of taking loans to buy cryptocurrencies. New legislation must also be introduced to improve transparency of cryptocurrency trading, he added.

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According to a recent research, about 500,000 of a total of 7.8 million Dutch households now own cryptocurrencies.

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Cryptocurrencies drew the attention of investors in 2017 when Bitcoin began rapidly growing in price, gaining more than 1000% over a year. Many financial experts related its success to those of the financial bubbles, predicting that it will have sudden and devastating fall. At the beginning of 2018, Bitcoin lost almost half its value but managed to eventually regain part of its lost value.

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