Thiel suggests China wants two reserve currencies
Co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist Peter Thiel has expressed concerns that China could leverage bitcoin to weaken America’s position on the world stage.
Thiel made the comments at a virtual round-table event hosted by the Richard Nixon Foundation earlier this week.
Thiel, who described himself as a “bitcoin maximalist”, said that the cryptocurrency “threatens fiat money, but especially threatens the US dollar”.
The German-American billionaire said that the Chinese government’s preference would be two global reserve currencies, and not only the dollar. However, he added that China does not want its own currency, the renminbi, to fill that role.
Thiel said it had previously used the euro “in part” as a weapon against the dollar’s status. While the euro was unable to replace the dollar, Thiel argues that China is now turning to bitcoin in the hopes of a different outcome.
“[If] China’s long bitcoin, perhaps from a geopolitical perspective, the U.S. should be asking some tougher questions about exactly how that works,” he said.