Hillary Clinton is no fan of crypto. In fact, she thinks that crypto is dangerous and could “destabilize nations” and even threaten the “dollar as the reserve currency.”
In a Bloomberg New Economy Forum panel, the former presidential candidate warned about a series of new challenges she believes the world’s governments will soon face. “Crypto” is one of these challenges, according to Clinton.
NEW – Hillary Clinton: #Bitcoin threatens US dollar as reserve currency.pic.twitter.com/2voMmlf4LO
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 19, 2021
“One more area that I hope nation-states start paying greater attention to is the rise of cryptocurrency – because what looks like a very interesting and somewhat exotic effort to literally mine new coins in order to trade with them, has the potential for undermining currencies, for undermining the role of the dollar as the reserve currency, for destabilizing nations, perhaps starting with small ones but going much larger,” the former Secretary of State said. (Story continues below.)
She also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of employing a “very large stable of hackers and those who deal in disinformation and cyberwarfare.”
Traders Fire Back Against Clinton
Crypto traders took to social media to fire back against Clinton’s comments. Many, in fact, agreed with her assessment, but saw it as a positive rather than a negative.
Yes Hillary. You understand crypto exactly. No sarcasm. This is what we're here to do. https://t.co/uW1S9N1jgp
— Daddy Liberty (@DaddyLiberty_) November 19, 2021
Experts says the potential for cryptos to replace the U.S. dollar, however, is unlikely. That’s because the U.S. dollar has the power of the U.S. government backing it. Bitcoin, for example, is actually prices in dollars. Nonetheless, the prospect of crypto replacing other currencies still excites many crypto traders.
Clinton, meanwhile, has become quite unpopular in online crypto circles as some enthusiasts see her as someone entrenched as part of an elite political establishment and therefore out of touch with the people.
Hillary hating crypto is the best possible endorsement https://t.co/1J1NMZdHY9
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 19, 2021
Others argued that it was not Bitcoin that was destabilizing the dollar. Rather, that was the fault of the Federal Reserve and its reckless money printing.
— Juan Hodl (@JuanGutiCA714) November 19, 2021
Online, the bitcoin community responded to Clinton’s statement mocking her suggestions that cryptos may be “destabilizing nations.”
You can imagine crypto people would put this on their billboard ads:
“Has the potential for destabilizing nations”
– Hillary Clinton https://t.co/HpqEqwIHsK— Tom Gara (@tomgara) November 19, 2021
Interestingly, former President Donald Trump, whom Clinton was running against also spoke out against crypto. Back in June, Trump called Bitcoin a scam, as it competed against the U.S. dollar.
“Bitcoin just seems like a scam… I don’t like it because it is another currency competing against the dollar… I want the dollar to be the currency of the world, that is what I have always said,” Trump stated.
