Lebanese-American essayist and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb has lambasted Bitcoin as a “technological tulip,” refusing to back away from his long-standing criticism of the leading cryptocurrency.
4 years ago I wrote the Bitcoin Black Paper. It is about its lack of fitness in becoming a transactional currency.
4 years later, it is still not used as a currency, just as a technological tulip. pic.twitter.com/GcFhkpsGm4
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) May 3, 2025
Taleb, who is best known as the author of “The Black Swan,” published a scathing anti-Bitcoin paper, which riled up many supporters of the nascent asset. The famed statistician argued that Bitcoin had failed to act as a cryptocurrency without government backing, arguing that the price of the leading cryptocurrency was essentially zero. Taleb posited that the flagship coin could not be used as a hedge against systemic risk due to its extreme volatility.
Many prominent Bitcoin critics either become haters early and stick by their animosity (Peter Schiff) or gradually warm up to the cryptocurrency (Larry Fink and others). Strategy’s Michael Saylor, the most powerful Bitcoin evangelist, was extremely critical of the cryptocurrency back in 2013.
However, Taleb’s trajectory is different since he is a former Bitcoin advocate, who described BTC as “the first organic currency” in the past. In 2021, however, he had a falling-out with the Bitcoin community and soured on the leading cryptocurrency. Some speculate that Taleb’s U-turn was caused by a personal feud with Saifedean Ammous, the author of the book “The Bitcoin Standard.” Notably, Tabeb claimed that Bitcoin was “an insurance” policy against government overreached in the foreword for the aforementioned book.
Over the past years, Taleb has been consistently hostile toward Bitcoin. In 2023, he slammed the top cryptocurrency as a “detector of imbeciles.”
Despite the fact that Bitcoin has had an extremely successful year, Tabel continues to view BTC as a failed currency.
