Roubini Wants the World to See His Latest Tirade Against Crypto

(Bloomberg) -- New York University professor and outspoken blockchain critic Nouriel Roubini unleashed another fiery tirade against cryptocurrencies in front of hundreds of crypto enthusiasts Wednesday -- and he wants everyone to know it.

The CEO of Roubini Macro Associates called on BitMEX CEO and co-founder Arthur Hayes in a Twitter post to release the video of a debate between the two, dubbed by the organizers as the “Tangle in Taipei,” at the Asia Blockchain Summit. Hayes controls the rights to the footage of the debate and didn't allow it to be streamed live. The audience was also barred from recording video of the event.

Hayes has said he plans to release highlights of the debate at a later time.

Pointing to several recent scandals in the sector, Roubini took aim at key tenets of cryptocurrencies in the debate, deriding its technology, security and lack of convenience. He is no stranger to this role -- he has been tapped to make anti-Bitcoin speeches at conferences around the world.

Hayes acknowledged the presence of some bad actors and a poor user experience as a payment system but maintained that cryptocurrencies provide a valuable service for those who want to avoid government regulation and surveillance.

“People love to speculate,” he said. “We're just trying to give them an opportunity to do it in a safe manner.”

Bitcoin's extreme volatility has been a headache for investors in the past week as it nearly reached $14,000 then fell below $10,000 a few days later. The largest digital asset appears to have found support and was trading around $11,300 as of 12:55 p.m. Hong Kong time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Samson Ellis in Taipei at sellis29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net, Joanna Ossinger

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.