Yes, we've seen a number of reports of folks in Lebanon and other countries, where their currencies are being devalued, turning to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a store of value.
Of course, these are highly volatile instruments, as we all know. This committee has talked about the volatility of cryptocurrencies many times, but we're also talking about extremely volatile and unstable national currencies as well. We've seen a lot of volatility even in supposedly gold standard bonds and other kinds of securities. We've seen tech stocks drop huge amounts. Currencies all over the world and all kinds of different securities are experiencing this kind of volatility.
Cryptocurrencies offer an opportunity. They offer a way to escape certain authoritarian regimes, ways for families in these countries to try to protect their wealth and potentially to escape with it. We've heard reports that refugees fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban took over and fleeing Ukraine when the war started were using cryptocurrencies as a means to safely transport and secure their wealth.
There is huge potential. This is why I tried to emphasize that these technologies are really extensions of base tools to preserve international human rights, and that's really the way to think about them and the way to think about Canada's support for them.