US Treasury Secretary: No longer talk about Bitcoin in 10 years, guarantee not to buy Bitcoin

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

"I won't talk about Bitcoin again in 10 years. I can assure you, (…) I bet that even after 5 or 6 years, I will not talk about Bitcoin as the Minister of Finance. I can Assure you that I personally will not buy Bitcoin."

Before Mnuchin published this latest remark, he said that cryptocurrency exists mainly as a criminal and speculative investment tool. He said:

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“I think, to a large extent, these cryptocurrencies have been dominated by illegal activities and speculation.”

However, Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of Digital Money Group (DCG), praised the Finance Minister’s remarks, saying it was “a comprehensive verification of Bitcoin”.

According to Bloomberg, Mnuchin said that US regulators may introduce new regulations on cryptocurrencies to ensure they do not have a negative impact on the financial system.

He said:

“We are focusing on all the crypto assets. We will ensure that there is a unified approach, and my guess is that all of these institutions will introduce more regulations.”

Money laundering

Mnuchin also recently claimed that the level of money laundering in legal tender is not as serious as bitcoin. In another interview with Squawk Box, he said that the United States has the most powerful anti-money laundering system in the world. On the other hand, he believes Bitcoin is easy to be laundered.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier, economist and anti-cryptocurrency expert Nouriel Roubini recently wrote an article that highly criticized the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, suggesting that the deal all meant Money laundering by terrorists and criminals:

“Interns of BitMEX have revealed to me that the exchange is also used daily by terrorists and other criminals in Russia, Iran and elsewhere for money laundering; the exchange has not taken any measures to stop this trend because it is from these transactions. Profit."

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