Nobel laureate and renowned economist Paul Krugman poked fun at Bitcoin’s BTC/USD store of value narrative after the cryptocurrency witnessed one of its steepest drops in years.
What Happened: On Monday, Krugman quoted financial journalist and Bloomberg TV host Joe Wisenthal’s Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal post questioning King Crypto’s long-endorsed “digital gold” thesis.
“Bitcoin doesn't look like the new gold. It looks like 3 tech stocks in a trenchcoat," Weisental stated, underscoring the growing correlation between Bitcoin and traditional risk assets, particularly technology stocks.
Adding his own twist, the 2008 Nobel Economics Prize winner wrote, “I like this line from Joe Weisenthal. But if you think about it, it's an Nvidious comparison,” a deliberate wordplay to equate Bitcoin’s volatility with NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, the stock that has become the barometer of sentiment in technology stocks.
Why It Matters: This is not the first time Krugman has criticized Bitcoin. Just last week, he described the cryptocurrency as “economically useless” and criticized former President Donald Trump’s support for the asset class.
Notably, presidential hopeful Trump recently advocated for a national Bitcoin stockpile, a move Krugman labeled a “government bailout” of a scandal-ridden, value and environment-destroying industry.
Krugman famously said after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in December 2022 that the "black swan" event could be the beginning of the end for the cryptocurrency industry and the very idea of a blockchain.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $55,791.75, up 2.55% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Shares of Nvidia ended 6.36% down at $100.45 after Monday’s regular trading session.
Photo via Shutterstock
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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