Bitcoin prices slump by 8% as Trump says cryptocurrency is 'scam against US dollar'

Former US President Donald Trump on Monday launched a scathing verbal attack on cryptocurrency 'Bitcoin' as he called it a “scam against the dollar”. At a LIVE televised Fox Business interview on June 7, Trump suggested that the US regulators must take action to regulate Bitcoin as the token has been competing with the US dollar, the money he had “always wanted to be the currency of the world.”

Trump continued, that he “does not like” the limelight surrounding Bitcoin. “The currency of this world should be the dollar,” the ex-US commander in chief told Fox’s, Stuart Varney. Shortly after his negative rhetoric, the prices for the digital token Bitcoin slumped by 8 percent nearly $32,913.33 in the last 24 hours, according to the Coindesk data.

“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam,” Trump said in his wide-ranging televised remarks when asked his views about the cryptocurrency. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar, I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That’s what I’ve always said.”

He continued, "Bitcoin--it just seems like a scam. I was surprised. With us, it was at 6,000 and much lower.” Varney & Co had asked the former President if he “liked” Bitcoin or would invest in it. 

“Do you invest in the stock market at this moment?” Varney asked the former US leader. Trump adduced that he had not traded on the stock market despite making investments in the past as it has currently been “sitting too high”. The discussion came about after the host informed Trump about the latest series of ransomware attacks on the US corporations, including the Colonial Pipeline Co. further adding that the Russia-based Black-Hat hackers demanded full ransom payment in Bitcoins.

As can be perceived that the decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) is hard to trace due to its anonymity as the public keys have serial numbers which are nonidentifiable items and transactions occur on the public ledger system. This had enabled the hackers to remain non traceable. On this, the former US President stressed that the government’s regulation against the digital token should be "very very high.”

Trump lambasted project 'Diem' 

This wouldn’t be the first when the bitcoin had attracted the ire of the former US President as in 2019, during his presidency Trump wrote on Twitter, “I'm not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.” He had further lambasted the Facebook-backed cryptocurrency project — formerly known as Libra, now known as Diem, saying that the firms must seek a banking charter shall be subjected to the global regulations. 

“If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International,” he said. Facebook at the time had announced that the social media giant and its 28 partners, including Mastercard Inc MA.N, PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O, and Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N, would establish the Libra Association to launch its own global cryptocurrency.