Billionaire Ken Griffin denounces crypto as a ‘jihadist call’ against the greenback



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Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin and former US President Donald Trump have both called digital currencies a threat to the US dollar.

Griffin, the founder of the $ 38 billion hedge fund Citadel LLC, told the Economic Club of Chicago on Oct. 4 that crypto is “a jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar.” He expressed his dismay at the younger generation working on alternatives to the dollar in the crypto industry:

“What a crazy concept it is, that we, as a country, welcome so many bright, young and talented people to find a replacement for our reserve currency.”

“I wish all of this passion and energy that has been put into crypto directed towards strengthening the United States,” he added.

Griffin does not appear to be opposed to the idea of ​​making money with crypto in the future, however. He said Citadel had yet to follow the plunge of other hedge funds and traditional financial institutions into crypto due to “lack of regulatory certainty.”

The hedge fund manager said U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler was “spot on” in his August comments when he said if crypto was to reach its potential, it “must be part of public policy frameworks”.

“This will make it a smaller market because it will become a much more competitive market when the regulations are clear,” Griffin said. “And that will be good. A small market, less people involved who are frankly trying to make a quick buck.”

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump has warned of the dollar threat to the Chinese digital yuan.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Adam Shapiro on October 5, Trump gave his take on China, the U.S. economy, and the crypto industry.

Speaking on measures taken by the Chinese government to ban crypto in the country ruled by Xi Jinping, Trump said the crackdown was part of Jinping’s steps to crush competition as he worked on “his own currency. , whether it’s crypto or otherwise, “and suggested that the U.S. government should do the same:

“I’m a huge fan of our currency and I don’t want other currencies coming out and damaging or degrading the dollar in any way.”

“If you look at a dollar-based monetary system, if you start to lose credibility, all of a sudden you’re going to lose this strong monetary system,” Trump said. The controversial former president said the US government’s “horror show” with the Mexican border and the withdrawal from Afghanistan had also affected the credibility of the greenback.

Trump is not a fan of cryptocurrency either. In late August, he said crypto was “potentially a disaster waiting to happen” as he questioned whether digital assets were “fake”:

“They [cryptocurrencies] may be wrong. Who knows what they are? They are definitely something that people are not very familiar with.