Neil Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve system, has a history of toxic comments about cryptography. Yesterday’s statements show that his attitude has not changed.
Speaking at an event in Montana on Tuesday, Kashkari admitted that he was “more optimistic about Bitcoin” five or six years ago.”However, he claims to see”95% of the fraud, hype, noise and confusion” in cryptography these days.
Bitcoin is often seen as a defensive tool against inflation and as a way to ditch the traditional fiat corporate system, which many crypto advocates argue is too repressive, corrupt and outdated.
Bitcoin without party for dollar
But Kashkari believes the US dollar is more valuable than bitcoin because the government has a monopoly on printing money.
“If you go to the basement and want to take your own money, the Secret Service will knock on your door. There are no barriers to you creating your own bitcoin, and thousands of garbage money has been created,” Kashkari said.
Fed Chairman calls crypto a “giant trash can”
He added that some of these coins were “complete frauds and Ponzi schemes” that lured investors only for the project founders to rip them off.
Kashkari said he was trying to figure out what problems Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were trying to solve, but “no one can clearly state what the real problem is.””
“Some people say we don’t want to be another Venezuelan, and that’s normal, I don’t want to be another Venezuelan either. I have not seen a single case of bitcoin use other than funding illegal activities such as drugs and prostitution,” Kashkari said.
This is not the first time the head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve System has hit Bitcoin.
In February 2020, he described cryptocurrency as a “giant trash can” that robbed people of tens of billions of dollars, praising US financial watchdogs such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for “involvement.”
