Former crypto supporter Taleb criticizes Bitcoin as a "contagious disease"

• Nassim Nicholas Taleb rails against Bitcoin• BTC described as a "contagious disease"• Cryptocurrencies are not suitable stores of value

Risk analyst and former Wall Street options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb has changed his stance on Bitcoin 180 degrees in a short space of time. While the holder of the chair for risk analysis at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University praised Bitcoin as a solution to recurring financial crises triggered by the banking system in 2017, he is now very critical of the cryptocurrency.

He only recently made this clear again when he harshly criticized the original cyber motto with a series of tweets, in which he found unflattering words. He described Bitcoin as a "contagious disease" and called all those who would bet on the digital currency "idiots":

Taleb emphasizes the "fragility" of cryptocurrencies

In the past, the "fragility" of Bitcoin has given Taleb a reason to speak out against investing in the original cyber currency. In July 2021, the financial mathematician published a so-called Black Paper entitled "Bitcoin, Currencies and Fragility". In the paper, Taleb explains why cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular would not represent an actual currency, a store of value or an inflation hedge from a financial and economic perspective. Accordingly, the economist warned all those who would see Bitcoin as a way to keep their money safe.

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Taleb also sees a decisive difference to gold here, which is also preferably used as a store of value. In response to the question of why the value of bitcoin is zero, the black paper states: "Gold and other precious metals are largely maintenance-free, not decaying over a historical horizon nor requiring maintenance to refresh their physical properties over a period of time longer period of time. Cryptocurrencies require an uninterrupted interest in them".

If this expires, however, the speculative bubble surrounding the digital currency will burst, similar to what happened with alternative currencies in the past. According to Taleb, bitcoin is just another tulip bulb, just "without the aesthetics and disguised as a 'currency'," as the financial expert wrote in a tweet in October 2021.

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