Peter Thiel suggests Bitcoin may be 'Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.'

Venture capitalist and conservative political donor Peter Thiel is a self-described "pro-Bitcoin maximalist," but he admitted Tuesday night that he's worried about the cryptocurrency and its digital brethren while hinting that tighter government regulations should be in play, Bloomberg reports.

Appearing alongside former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien at a virtual event held for members of the Richard Nixon Foundation, Thiel warned that Bitcoin may be a threat to the United States, indicating that his hawkish attitude toward China outweighs his crypto enthusiasm (Thiel is a major investor in virtual currency ventures and in cryptocurrencies themselves, Bloomberg notes).

Thiel explained that China isn't fond of the fact that the U.S. dollar is the world's major reserve currency because it gives the U.S. global economic "leverage," and he thinks Beijing may view Bitcoin as a tool that could chip away at the dollar's might. "I do wonder whether at this point, [if] Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.," he said, video from the event obtained by Bloomberg reveals. "It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the U.S. dollar ... perhaps from a geopolitical perspective, the U.S. should be asking some tougher questions about exactly how that works." Read more at Bloomberg. Tim O'Donnell

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up