The FCA warned consumers over cryptocurrency CFDs late last year, labelling them as "extremely high-risk, speculative products".
"The accredited, high-net-worth investors in the fund," he added, "were made very aware that this was a high-risk speculative investment vehicle".
While buying emergent art is high-risk, speculative investment, acquiring established masterpieces is perceived as the opposite – a back-up in hard times.
"It could be argued that small businesses that blindly accept Bitcoin are not actually in commerce but are in the high-risk speculative trading business," Williams said.
The moves by Goldman and Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, mark a dramatic shift toward the mainstream for a digital token that has been known primarily for its underworld associations and status as a high-risk, speculative investment.
"ICOs are very high-risk, speculative investment," the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — which oversees 56,000 financial services firms and markets in the UK — said in a statement published today.
For instance, a bill pending in North Carolina mandates that investors be warned in plain English "I acknowledge that I am investing in a high-risk, speculative business venture, that I may lose all of my investment and that I can afford the loss of my investment".
You had to either be an investment bank and engage in high-risk speculative investment, or be a commercial bank and be entrusted with people's life savings.
For example, high-risk, speculative investments such as call or put options would be unsuitable for a client who is retired and concerned mostly with preserving wealth".
