Digital currency destabilizing effect on the Chinese Yuan currency due to speculation. Recent interest in cryptocurrencies has prompted renewed interest in digital currencies, with bitcoin, introduced in 2008, becoming the most widely used and accepted digital currency. According to the European Central Bank's 2015 "Virtual currency schemes – a further analysis" report, virtual currency is a digital representation of value, not issued by a central bank, credit institution or e-money institution, which, in some circumstances, can be used as an alternative to money. In the previous report of October 2012, the virtual currency was defined as a type of unregulated, digital money,
Currency War of 2009–11 war' is over, saying it is still on-going. In an April interview with the "Wall Street Journal", Mantega spoke out against the loose monetary policies of advanced nations which have been aggravating inflation in emerging economies. Unlike other emerging economies, China has so far chose to continue holding its currency down against the dollar, fighting inflation instead with interest rate rises. The rate rises cause even greater pressure from the markets for a currency appreciation, and to prevent this, at least in the months leading up to early 2011, China had to buy dollar assets at a faster rate than