‘Hodl Nuts’ Are ‘Cyber Terrorists’ and Bitcoin Is Going to Zero: ‘Dr Doom’ Roubini
NYU economist and noted bitcoin basher Nouriel Roubini
There’s something about Bitcoin that seems to bring out the worst in economists.
Whether its the fundamental ideology behind cryptocurrency — that control of the money supply should not be placed in the hands of the few — or the mere fact that this asset, once universally-derided by the mainstream financial establishment, has defied economists’ flippant prognostications from years past, one cannot discern.
What is clear, however, is that economists as a group exhibit an utter disdain toward cryptocurrency that borders on naked zealotry.
The latest data point in this trend is Nouriel Roubini, who served as a senior economic advisor during the Clinton administration.
Earlier this week, Roubini — nicknamed “Dr Doom” for predicting the 2008 financial crisis — unleashed a tweetstorm aimed a floundering Bitcoin and its defiant supporters, or in his words “HODL nuts,” “Cryptocrazies,” and “Cyber-Terrorists.”
On Monday, Roubini — who has been predicting Bitcoin’s imminent doom since at least 2015 — gloated that the flagship cryptocurrency’s price had crashed down to $6,000 — just as he “expected,” he said.
He further praised Augustin Carstens, the chief of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), who recently labeled Bitcoin a “combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster.”
Of course, as CCN.com reported, the US Senate hearing on cryptocurrencies did not go quite as Dr Doom expected.
In fact, demonstrated that while industry regulation is likely to increase in the coming months and years, neither regulators or legislators are dismissing cryptocurrency as a fad. Rather, regulators stressed that Congress should pursue regulations cautiously and that they should be “carefully tailored” to address specific risks and protect investors from scams.
The cryptocurrency markets made a bullish pivot as the hearing progressed, and by Tuesday the Bitcoin price had recovered to a global average of $8,435 — a single-day gain of 22 percent.
But fret not, Bitcoin bears, Roubini has an explanation for this too. It’s market manipulation, of course! After all, why else would anyone buy Bitcoin?
Featured image from Shutterstock.
