Lebanese-American essayist and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb has lambasted Bitcoin as a “technological tulip,” refusing to again away from his long-standing criticism of the main cryptocurrency.
4 years in the past I wrote the Bitcoin Black Paper. It’s about its lack of health in changing into a transactional forex.
4 years later, it’s nonetheless not used as a forex, simply as a technological tulip. pic.twitter.com/GcFhkpsGm4
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) Could 3, 2025
Taleb, who’s greatest often known as the writer of “The Black Swan,” revealed a scathing anti-Bitcoin paper, which riled up many supporters of the nascent asset. The famed statistician argued that Bitcoin had did not act as a cryptocurrency with out authorities backing, arguing that the worth of the main cryptocurrency was primarily zero. Taleb posited that the flagship coin couldn’t be used as a hedge in opposition to systemic threat on account of its excessive volatility.
Many distinguished Bitcoin critics both turn into haters early and stick by their animosity (Peter Schiff) or steadily heat as much as the cryptocurrency (Larry Fink and others). Technique’s Michael Saylor, probably the most highly effective Bitcoin evangelist, was extraordinarily essential of the cryptocurrency again in 2013.
Nevertheless, Taleb’s trajectory is completely different since he’s a former Bitcoin advocate, who described BTC as “the primary natural forex” previously. In 2021, nonetheless, he had a falling-out with the Bitcoin neighborhood and soured on the main cryptocurrency. Some speculate that Taleb’s U-turn was brought on by a private feud with Saifedean Ammous, the writer of the e book “The Bitcoin Customary.” Notably, Tabeb claimed that Bitcoin was “an insurance coverage” coverage in opposition to authorities overreached within the foreword for the aforementioned e book.
Over the previous years, Taleb has been persistently hostile towards Bitcoin. In 2023, he slammed the highest cryptocurrency as a “detector of imbeciles.”
Even supposing Bitcoin has had an especially profitable 12 months, Tabel continues to view BTC as a failed forex.
