To say that Kevin Warsh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve, has a complicated history with cryptocurrencies would be an understatement.
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In the past, Warsh has been skeptical of crypto such as Bitcoin (BTC) and its role in finance, going so far as to refer to the digital asset as “software.” In a 2015 interview, Warsh said of Bitcoin, “It’s just software. It’s just the newest, coolest software.”
Warsh has also said that cryptocurrencies are nothing more than “software pretending to be money” and categorized crypto as a symptom of “speculative excess” among investors, driven by loose monetary policy. He has supported the view that Bitcoin’s rise has resulted from the 2008 financial crisis and investors’ disenchantment with the traditional banking system.
Changing Views on Bitcoin?
The past remarks that Warsh has made about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have raised some eyebrows among investors and digital asset bulls. However, over the years, Warsh appears to have softened his views on BTC and other crypto.
More recently, Warsh has argued that central banks need to engage with crypto, and said the Federal Reserve should consider a U.S. central bank digital currency to rival China’s digital yuan. Warsh was an early investor in a cryptocurrency project called Basis that was an algorithmic central bank. He also served as an adviser for Electric Capital, a venture capital firm focused on crypto and blockchain technologies.
Is Bitcoin a Buy?
Most analysts don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin. So instead, we’ll look at the three-month performance of BTC. As one can see in the chart below, the price of Bitcoin has declined 20.18% in the last 12 weeks.
