The President and Chief Executive Officer of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve says there is no use case for Bitcoin and other cryptoassets.
Speaking at the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) annual summit held in Montana last Tuesday (August 17), Neel Kashkari said that he was less optimistic about Bitcoin compared to five or six years ago. Rather than sparking financial innovation, Kashkari said the current landscape of crypto is comprised of “95% fraud, hype, noise and confusion.”
Kashkari argued that Bitcoin would never be able to overtake the U.S. dollar as a form of currency, noting the government’s monopoly on money printing.
As reported by Decrypt, Kashkari said,
If you go into your basement and you want to produce your own currency, the Secret Service will come knocking on your door. There’s no barrier to you creating your own Bitcoin [and] there are thousands of garbage coins that are being created.
Kashkari noted that several of the cryptoassets on the market are “complete fraud and Ponzi schemes” and are profiting off the get-rich-quick mindset of the industry.
The Minneapolis Federal Reserve head admitted he had tried to understand the problems that Bitcoin would be able to solve, but ultimately concluded “no one can articulate what the actual problem is.”
He highlighted investor concerns over dollar inflation as a possible avenue for Bitcoin, but countered that BTC has thus far only proved effective at funding illicit activities such as drug dealing and prostitution.
Kashkari has previously been critical of cryptoassets, calling the industry a “giant garbage dumpster” in February 2020.
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
