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

Peter Thiel.
(Image credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

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).

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.