Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin Can Be A Chinese Financial Weapon

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The Silicon Valley legend Peter Thiel has become a Bitcoin maximalist as per his own admission.

The now political strategist who authored the fantastic Zero to One, co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, made the first venture capital investment in Facebook and then created Palantir, was invited to a strategy discussion by the Nixon Foundation earlier this week.

His comments were picked up as he spoke about both the new digital currency of China, the so-called E-yuan, and Bitcoin (of which he recently admitted that investing in it in 2021 is as logic as investing in FAANG in 2014).

Chinese Financial Weapon

When the panel discussed the upcoming E-yuan which China wants to showcase to the world during the 2022 Winter Olympics (which the Biden administration is already thinking of boycotting), moderator Hugh Hewitt asked Thiel if the new Chinese digital currency is a:

Threat to the dollar and its dominance of world markets.

“Even though I’m a pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin maximalist person, I do wonder whether if at this point Bitcoin should also be thought of in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.” says @Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel.

More on cryptocurrencies from The #NixonSeminar: pic.twitter.com/sIUQTQEWgr

— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) April 7, 2021

Thiel answered:

Even though I’m a pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin maximalist person, I do wonder whether if at this point Bitcoin should also be thought of in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.

With that comment (pointing out the Bitcoin mining capacity China holds) the Silicon Valley investor admitted that Bitcoin could become a problem for the US as soon as it can somehow become a hedge against dollar deflation.

“Just because other countries who may be adversarial or not to the U.S. are going to use it that doesn’t mean [Peter Thiel] is taking an anti-#bitcoin stance,” says @apompliano. “What he is doing is he’s saying listen there is a global competition happening here.” pic.twitter.com/MyiypjC801

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 8, 2021

Right now, the dollar is the world’s reserve currency, but if the world were to admit multiple reserve currencies instead of just one (think dollar, euro, e-yuan and Bitcoin altogether), then the US would have to act in his view, think possible regulation.

Bitcoin’s number one fan Anthony Pompliano was asked about the comment on CNBC immediately of course, as it made ripples in US media. Pompliano said:

Just because other countries who may be adversarial or not to the U.S. are going to use it that doesn’t mean Peter Thiel is taking an anti-#bitcoin stance. What he is doing is he’s saying listen there is a global competition happening here.

mmaxer / Depositphotos.com