China in particular has used the group as a platform to promote its currency, the renminbi, as an international currency.
Until this spring, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi was almost the only Japanese bank to promote foreign-currency accounts aggressively.
The governments are incentivized to promote digital currencies because of the visibility they can glean from their public ledgers.
He also promoted the "currency board" approach, in which the ruble exchange rate would be fixed, pegged to a hard currency like the dollar.
"It's supervolatile, so I'd tell people to go slow," said Peter Vessenes, chairman and executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the currency.
Colbert Lau, the founder of Bitcoin Malaysia, which promotes the currency domestically, said that he was not concerned by the bank's statement.
Giulio Tremonti, the economy minister, went so far as to say that he would leave the job of promoting the currency to the likes of "primates waving banners, faith healers, shamans, miracle workers and bankers".
Promoting the currency by nurturing Hong Kong as an offshore renminbi center is a far cry from dismantling capital controls that bar overseas investors from freely accessing onshore financial markets.
HOW do you think the growth of this currency might be affected by a statement like "Never hold more bitcoins than you're prepared to lose," as Peter Vessenes, chairman and executive director of a nonprofit organization that promotes the currency, has said?
