From Central Bank Governor to Canadian Prime Minister: How Mark Carney Steers the Controversy of Cryptocurrency with "Prudent Openness"

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

On March 9, 2025, Canada's ruling Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was overwhelmingly elected as the new leader of the party. Carney will succeed current Prime Minister Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party and form a new cabinet, becoming the first Prime Minister in Canadian history to take office without being directly elected.

Mark Carney's career has always been closely linked to the financial system, from being an executive at Goldman Sachs to leading the central banks of Canada and the UK, and serving as the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action. Each step he has taken has been accompanied by deep reflections on global economic and financial innovation.

Image: Mark Carney, Source: Visual China

Early Stance: Questioning Bitcoin but Embracing Blockchain

Carney's first public comments on cryptocurrency date back to December 2017. At that time, Bitcoin's price soared to an all-time high, sparking a global speculative frenzy. While giving testimony on financial stability to the UK Parliament in London, Carney, as the Governor of the Bank of England, clearly stated that "Bitcoin is not a threat to financial stability," believing its connection to the traditional financial system is limited, but warned of the risks of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) evading regulation. This statement set the tone for his subsequent stance, which was to distinguish between the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies and the potential of their underlying technology.

In February 2018, Carney candidly stated at the Regent's University London that Bitcoin "has almost failed the traditional definition of money." He further pointed out that Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins has "serious flaws," arguing that mechanically mimicking the gold standard is "a crime of monetary amnesia"—this design, while attempting to combat inflation, leads to severe price volatility, making it a "poor short-term store of value." He even warned, "If ordinary families use Bitcoin to borrow for daily expenses, they could fall into a debt abyss due to a collapse in value." However, he simultaneously emphasized that blockchain technology is a "revolutionary validation of decentralized financial transactions" and revealed that the Bank of England is exploring the application of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in real-time settlement systems to enhance efficiency and security.

This dichotomy of "negating speculation, affirming technology" became his core attitude towards cryptocurrency in its early days.

Regulatory Logic: Combating Illegality, Supporting Compliant Innovation

Carney's regulatory advocacy for cryptocurrency has always revolved around two key words: transparency and accountability. He has repeatedly pointed out that anonymous transactions are breeding grounds for money laundering and illegal activities, calling for cryptocurrency exchanges to be brought under the same regulatory framework as traditional financial institutions. In his discussions supporting central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), he particularly emphasized their potential in combating terrorism and economic crime—by compressing the space for black market activities through traceable transaction records. During the G20 summit in January 2018, he pushed to put cryptocurrency on the agenda, advocating for international cooperation to regulate its exchange mechanisms with fiat currencies.

For digital currency projects initiated by private institutions, Carney has shown a rare openness. When Facebook launched its stablecoin Libra (later renamed Diem) in June 2019, he did not outright reject it but referred to it as an innovative attempt that "could lower global payment costs," while emphasizing that "the highest standards of regulatory frameworks must be established in advance." He even proposed that a "synthetic hegemonic currency" (SHC) supported by multiple central banks could potentially replace the US dollar as the international reserve currency to address the financial system imbalances brought about by globalization. Although this idea was not widely adopted, it reflected his profound insight into the potential of digital currencies to reshape the international financial order.

Climate Perspective: Energy Controversies and the Priority of CBDCs

In 2021, at an event at Stanford University, Carney, as the UN Special Envoy for Climate Change, discussed his impressions of cryptocurrency. He criticized the high energy consumption of Bitcoin mining and the rationale behind China's ban on mining, stating, "Climate change is already a survival challenge; we do not need to complicate the problem with technology."

On May 13 of the same year, he retweeted Elon Musk's comments about Bitcoin payments, calling for the establishment of a "resilient, high-performance, and carbon-free payment system." This seemingly contradictory action actually aligned with his policy priorities—he supports a sustainable technological path rather than specific crypto assets.

At the same time, he publicly emphasized the advantages of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in terms of security and sustainability. This position is consistent with his long-standing admiration for CBDCs. As early as 2017, Carney led the Bank of England in testing a digital currency prototype, believing it could "reconstruct liquidity risks in the banking sector," but also warned of the need to balance innovation with financial stability. Just before stepping down as Governor of the Bank of England in 2020, he reiterated that the design of CBDCs must maintain a prudent attitude to avoid impacting the existing monetary system.

This ongoing exploration of "public digital currencies" stands in stark contrast to his reserved attitude towards private cryptocurrencies—in Carney's vision, the core of the future financial system should be anchored by sovereign-backed digital currencies rather than decentralized crypto assets.

Promoting the Implementation of Crypto Payments

In 2021, Carney joined the board of directors of American payment giant Stripe. Although the company had abandoned Bitcoin payments in 2018, during his tenure (2021 to 2025), Stripe gradually launched crypto payment solutions between 2022 and 2024, including support for stablecoin settlements and Web3 wallet integration. In April 2024, it resumed accepting cryptocurrency payments, and in October of the same year, Stripe acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, marking the largest acquisition in the history of the cryptocurrency industry as reported.

Stripe's strategic transformation aligns perfectly with Carney's pursuit of a "highly efficient and compliant payment system," which embraces the efficiency of blockchain while avoiding regulatory uncertainties.

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