Households’ financial assets grew by €159 billion to €7,325 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Alongside the transaction-related increase in financial assets (acquisition of financial assets), valuation gains on shares and investment fund shares played a significant role.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy has only a relatively minor impact on the prices of Bitcoin and other crypto tokens. This is the conclusion reached by Bundesbank experts in the September edition of the Monthly Report, which states that “monetary policy impulses explain only a fraction of the volatile price developments”. At first glance, the high rates of growth seen by crypto tokens appear to be attributable to other factors.