Scholar and risk managing expert, author of bestselling books, including “Black Swan” and “Antifragile”, Nassim Nicholas Taleb suddenly backed from his pro-Bitcoin position exactly three years ago to become a rigid BTC critic.
It happened a few months before Bitcoin his its first all-time high in 2021 – $63,000.
Taleb’s arguments against Bitcoin
In his tweet published on February 12, 2021, Taleb stated that he had began getting rid of his Bitcoin holdings. Explaining why he began to do that, the scholar wrote that “a currency is never supposed to be more volatile than what you buy and sell with it.”
Taleb also pointed out that “you can’t price goods in BTC,” therefore Bitcoin turned out to be a “failure” in that respect.
I’ve been getting rid of my BTC. Why? A currency is never supposed to be more volatile than what you buy & sell with it.
You can’t price goods in BTCIn that respect, it’s a failure (at least for now). It was taken over by Covid denying sociopaths w/the sophistication of amoebas
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) February 12, 2021
Another thing that the renowned “Black Swan” author began criticising Bitcoin for was its lack of transparency and the ability to be used for tax evasion and money laundering – Taleb mentioned these criteria as the main factors the appeal of a cryptocurrency depends on. The thing is here, he says then that “BTC is more tractable than cash”. Even gold can be made intractable – “You can anonymize a gold coin by remelting it. You can rework a spoon” but not Bitcoin.
2) The other problem BTC Protozoa don’t get: the appeal of a cryptocurrency depends on some opacity, its ability to facilitate tax fraud and money laundering.
You can anonymize a gold coin by remelting it. You can rework a spoon.
BTC is more tractable than cash.#Lindy
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) February 13, 2021
Besides, Taleb pointed out that Bitcoin volatility does not decline over time or even if the price begins to increase.
“Bitcoin failed as hedge against banks”
When asked whether Bitcoin has succeeded as “an asset and a hedge against central bank irresponsibility”, Taleb responded that BTC had failed here as well.
In early 2023, the US was struck with a banking crisis and Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank crashed; almost all of them were bailed out by the US government.
During these events, the global flagship cryptocurrency surged from $23,000 to over $30,000.
Besides, Taleb never commented on the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to many market experts, including angel investor Anthony Pompliano, “Wall Street loves Bitcoin” now.
This started when the aforementioned ETFs got approved a month ago. Two of them have seen $3 billion worth of inflows during the first month of trading among the 5,500 ETFs launched in the past 30 years, according to Pompliano.
