US Treasury Secretary: I Will Not Be Loaded Up On Bitcoin”

Steven Mnuchin has been in the crypto news quite a bit recently. This week is no different as he has just said that he will never add Bitcoin to his investment portfolio…

Given that Mnuchin is the United States Treasury Secretary, this is quite a bit statement and one that isn’t very bullish for the space.

The former hedge fund manager has expressed his distrust of the cryptocurrency in a new interview clip released by CNBC in which he assures the network that they won’t be talking about Bitcoin as little as six years from now. 

Speaking to the host of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Joe Kernen, Mnuchin said: “I would have other priorities […] I will not be personally loaded up on bitcoin.” 

Watch a snippet of the interview here.

Bearish approach to Bitcoin

Mnuchin’s words come over a week after he called Bitcoin a national security threat during the white house press briefing earlier this month. The secretary later cautioned investors of cryptocurrency that the federal government would pursue extremely strong and strict enforcement of financial regulations and that alleged criminals could use it to facilitate billions of dollars worth of illegal transactions.

“We’re going to make sure that bitcoin doesn’t become the equivalent of Swiss-numbered bank accounts, which were a risk to the financial system,” Mnuchin said. “There are billions of dollars of transactions going on in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes.”

But when asked on whether he would rid himself of the US dollar, he uses a similar justification for dismissing cryptocurrency but added that the comparison between the leading cryptocurrency and the fiat currency is inaccurate.

“I don’t think that’s accurate at all, that cash is laundered all the time,” Mnuchin replied. “We combat bad actors in the US dollar every day to protect the US financial system.”

Taking a sly dig at Mnuchin is the Twitter user @Rhythmtrader who took to Twitter yesterday (July 24th) to say:

Goldman Sachs, last 20yrs:

- $9.6+ billion in fines
- 28 offences
- Mortgage abuses
- Securities abuses
- Trading violations
- Investor violations
- Accounting fraud
- Banking violations

Steven Mnuchin's place of work for almost two decades, but yeah, bitcoin is for criminals..

— Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader) July 24, 2019