Finance

Cryptocurrency investment fraud is one of the largest and fastest-growing categories of financial crime globally. The FBI's IC3 documented $9.3 billion in crypto-related fraud losses in 2024 alone, a 66% increase from the prior year, confirming this as a major and well-evidenced public threat.

Pyramid schemes are illegal financial structures where returns for existing participants are paid using money from new recruits rather than from genuine business activity. They are well-documented by regulators, inevitably collapse, and cause significant financial harm to the vast majority of participants.

The ECB's digital euro project is designed with privacy protections and is explicitly intended to complement, not replace, cash. Extreme claims that it would enable totalitarian financial surveillance are not supported by the design or legislation. Legitimate civil liberties concerns about the balance between privacy and compliance monitoring exist and are subject to ongoing democratic debate.

The EU has not banned cash and has no plans to do so. An EU anti-money laundering regulation sets a €10,000 cap on cash payments to businesses in professional transactions from 2027 onward, a targeted measure that does not affect everyday cash use, private transactions, or the right to hold cash.