Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of a series of best-selling financial books such as The Black Swan and Skin in the Game, and a one-time bitcoin fan, has recently explained why he no longer believes in bitcoin.
Bitcoin Has Completely Failed: Taleb
After ditching his previous pro-bitcoin stance, Taleb now believes the worldâs largest cryptocurrency is worth nothing since its credentials as a âcurrency without governmentâ, a safe haven, and a reliable inflation hedge have totally failed.
In his recently published article, the distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York Universityâs Tandon School of Engineering said only a few assets in financial history have been more fragile than bitcoin, according to a CNBC report.
BTCUSD Chart By TradingViewIn late June, Taleb put out a piece entitled âBitcoin, Currencies, and Fragilityâ where he asserted that bitcoinâs real value is âexactly zeroâ mainly because the crypto asset requires a massive amount of interest to maintain its worth. Gold and other precious metals, on the contrary, do not require that. Taleb also questioned bitcoinâs worth given its high volatility throughout its lifetime.
He started tweeting about how bitcoin had âfailedâ earlier this year and revealed that he was dumping his BTC stash.
Taleb Was Once A Bitcoin Fan
Taleb hasnât always been so down on bitcoin. He has previously spoken on the flagship cryptocurrencyâs ability to assist people to circumvent capital controls imposed by dictatorial governments. In 2019, Talebâs native country, Lebanon, saw several banks shut down as mass protests against government corruption rocked the streets. At the time, he tweeted that this was âthe most potent case for cryptocurrencies: banks are never there when you need themâ.  Â
In 2017, he explicitly described bitcoin as the âfirst organic currencyâ in the foreword to the Bitcoin Standard â economist Saifedean Ammousâ book that made a compelling case for the flagship cryptocurrency as a new form of sound money (digital gold).
Later the next year, Taleb wrote about how bitcoinâs mere existence was an âinsurance policy that will remind governments that the last object establishment could control, namely, the currency, is no longer their monopolyâ.
But now, itâs an apparent 180 for Taleb.