Peter Thiel: U.S. should crackdown on bitcoin, warns of Chinese weapon to threaten dollar

Is it time to rein in cryptocurrency?

Peter Thiel is considered to be an avid supporter of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But he also thinks it could be hurting the United States.

In fact, he believes it could be a Chinese weapon.

Thiel said during an appearance at a virtual event held for members of the Richard Nixon Foundation:

“I do wonder whether at this point, Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S. It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the U.S. dollar.

[If] China’s long Bitcoin, perhaps from a geopolitical perspective, the U.S. should be asking some tougher questions about exactly how that works.”

It is highly unlikely at this point that the U.S. government would ban bitcoin, especially since law enforcement agencies and security apparatuses can exploit the cryptocurrency for surveillance purposes.

Moreover, institutions across the U.S., from Wall Street to Bill Gate Foundation, are deeply invested in the peer-to-peer decentralized virtual currency.