Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reverses his attitude towards Bitcoin: There is no difference between buying Bitcoin and buying gold

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has changed his mind about Bitcoin, having previously criticized it as having no value. But in an interview last week, Mnuchin said that buying Bitcoin is "no different than buying gold or some other assets." Mnuchin also said: "I think the underlying technology of (Bitcoin's) blockchain is incredible and has a lot of different things, especially in the fintech and financial fields."

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Mnuchin added that while he himself does not plan to invest in Bitcoin for the time being, he does not object to others doing so. He said: "I personally don't want to add it to my portfolio, but if people want to do so, that's totally fine."

While his stance on Bitcoin has softened, Mnuchin remains concerned about bad actors using digital currencies to launder money.

During his tenure as U.S. Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin promised "very, very strict" regulation, including proposing a crackdown on anonymous wallets and increasing "know your customer" requirements. In an interview last week, he reiterated the need for Bitcoin to have "full BSA and regulatory compliance." BSA is short for the Bank Secrecy Act, which was introduced in the 1970s to curb money laundering. BSA requires U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges to register as money service businesses and meet certain requirements.