It is no secret that Nouriel Roubini hates cryptocurrency. For most of 2018, the American economist has been smugly congratulating himself for denouncing the entire space as toxic and stating that prices were heading to zero. The problem is, Bitcoin is still up more than 60x since he first took up his anti-crypto offensive in 2014.

Temporary Bear Market Makes Nouriel Roubini More Self-Righteous Than Ever

US economist Nouriel Roubini has been all over the cryptocurrency news in 2018. He has been such a keen fixture in fact that he has been nicknamed Dr. Doom for his uber-bearish outlook. In October, for example, he put forward his own challenge for “most creative insult fired at Bitcoin” (an honour previously bestowed on Warren Buffet for his “rat poison squared” remarks) by calling crypto a “stinking cesspool”.

Later, he broke tradition amongst traditional finance-loving crypto naysayers by widening his offensive to include blockchain technology. Whereas most of those opposed to decentralised, non-statist currencies admit that blockchain tech is at least interesting, Roubini has penned a lengthy article attacking the technological innovation, titled “The Blockchain Lie”, which lambastes blockchain as being largely useless and completely over hyped.

Recently, as prices took a more severe nosedive than many were expecting them to, Roubini has once again taken to Twitter to smugly pat himself on the back for being “right” all along about Bitcoin.

Expect 1000s of crypto & blockchain ventures to go bankrupt. Almost all were total vaporware: they had no goods, services, products, software, apps. They stole the money & run. Crooks! Bloomberg: Crypto Market Crash Leaving Bankrupt Startups in its Wake.https://t.co/G0Xzps4Qg1 — Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) December 7, 2018

A high correlation btw how much the pompous carnival barker @APompliano talks up his fund that lost this year 90% of its value & how much Bitcoin/shitcoins in his fund collapse. Now BTC down to 3400. Maybe if he were to shut up for a while BTC may take a temp breather on way to 0 — Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) December 7, 2018

Better late than never…some of us have been saying and writing about it for over two years Why a Nobel laureate in economics thinks bitcoin is toast https://t.co/gTkELpw2Lf — Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) December 6, 2018

Aren’t We Forgetting Something Nouriel..?

The problem with Roubini’s “told you so-ing” is that he has actually been bleating the same old tune since 2014. If we look at BTC’s price performance over this period, instead of the one arbitrary picked by the US economist to support his own biases, we see that he has been proved anything but right. Bitcoin has shot from around $600 to well over $3,000. If we widen our lens further, we see that the number one digital asset is actually the best performing investment by far over the last decade.

In 2014, CNBC ran a story on Roubini and his pessimism about Bitcoin. The article stated that Roubini said the only use of the digital currency was criminal activities and that those transacting in it would immediately convert it back into dollars. Four years and almost $55 billion later, Roubini’s earliest attacks on Bitcoin look ill-conceived at best.

Included in the CNBC article was the following Tweet:

So Bitcoin isn't a currency. It is btw a Ponzi game and a conduit for criminal/illegal activities. And it isn't safe given hacking of it. — Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) March 9, 2014

The above sentiment has been proved entirely incorrect in the years since he posted it. Reports estimate that less than 1% of all Bitcoin transactions involve any criminal activity. Meanwhile, there still has not been a single incident of Bitcoin itself being “hacked”. Sure, there have been plenty of examples of exchanges being having their security compromised but that is entirely irrelevant. If the Royal Bank of Scotland had a security breach, do you blame the pound? No, that would be ridiculous. It is the fault of the institution being negligent in their security and nothing else.

No market ever travelled straight up and in four years time, it is highly likely that the criticisms Roubini levies at Bitcoin today will once again be proved entirely wrong. That would certainly be quite the imbroglio for the outspoken economist.

Related Reading: Tech Lead at Capgemini Defends Bitcoin Against Nouriel Roubini’s Testimony

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