Former White House Adviser Bashes Bitcoin, Says it Lacks Market Integrity
2 min readGary Cohn, former National Economic Council chief to President Trump is still not a fan of Bitcoin (BTC). The one-time Goldman Sachs chief says BTC will ultimately fail due to its integrity flaws.
Meanwhile, the largest crypto by market capitalization continues to defy the expectations of critics. BTC is currently up over 166% year-to-date (YTD) despite suffering a 50% price decline back in mid-March.
Cohn Doubles Down on Negative Bitcoin Stance
Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Cohn described Bitcoin as lacking some of the basic integrity of a real market, adding:
“Part of the integrity of a system is knowing who owns it and knowing who has it and knowing why it’s being transferred. The Bitcoin system today has no transparency to it. So there are a lot of people that question, why would you need a system that does not have an audit trail.”
Thus, Cohn predicts that despite any value proposition ascribed to Bitcoin, the popular cryptocurrency may end up failing. Cohn’s argument of BTC not having an audit trail flies in the face of established crypto forensic tools currently in use by governments to track transfers.
As previously reported by BeInCrypto, governments are increasingly deanonymizing crypto transactions as part of crime-fighting efforts.
Checks like know-your-customer (KYC) verifications and the FATF travel rule are working to provide real-time tracking of cryptocurrency ownership.
Indeed, the crypto space was in an uproar recently following rumors of possible regulations targeted at self-hosted wallets.
Cohn is no stranger to anti-Bitcoin sentiments. Back in 2018, the former Goldman Sachs President declared that Bitcoin will not end up being the global cryptocurrency.
At the time, Cohn affirmed the then-popular “blockchain not Bitcoin” refrain that was common among mainstream financial commentators.
Cohn is, however, not against all forms of digital currencies. Writing in a Financial Times opinion piece back in April, the former Trump economic adviser argued that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could improve access to financial services for citizens.
Several mainstream financial figures already tout CBDCs as better alternatives to privately-issued cryptocurrencies. Most arguments along this line usually espouse the position that private digital currencies will spell doom for the current global financial status quo.
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