US Finance Minister Mnuchin presents a new pessimistic view of the future of Bitcoin

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin today expressed a new bearish view of Bitcoin, saying he may not talk about the biggest cryptocurrency in five years. In an interview with CNBC “Squawk Box” on July 24, Mnuchin said:

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"I won't talk about Bitcoin in 10 years. I can assure you that even within 5 or 6 years, I will bet that I will not talk about Bitcoin as Finance Minister. I have other priorities […] I can assure you that I personally will not be loaded onto Bitcoin."

Mnuchin's latest remarks were made after a recent statement about how cryptocurrencies exist primarily as criminal and speculative investment vehicles. "I believe that these cryptocurrencies have been largely dominated by illegal activities and speculation," he said.

However, Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of the Digital Currency Group, celebrated the statement of the Treasury Secretary, saying they “completely and fully validated Bitcoin”.

Money laundering

Mnuchin also recently claimed that fiat money was not cleaned by bitcoin. In a separate Squawk Box interview, Mnuchin said the United States has the world's most powerful anti-money laundering system. On the other hand, Bitcoin believes it is vulnerable to money laundering.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, economist and anti-cryptocurrency expert Nouriel Roubini recently wrote an article that highly criticized the cryptographic exchange BitMEX, suggesting that the exchange deliberately laundered money for terrorists and criminals:

“Internal personnel at BitMEX revealed to me that the exchange was used daily by terrorists and other criminals from Russia, Iran and elsewhere for large-scale money laundering. The exchange did not stop this because it was obtained from these transactions. Lee."

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