Bitcoin
Tucker Carlson Says He Loves Bitcoin, But Believes the CIA Created It
Famous political speaker Tucker Carlson has a lot of respect for Bitcoin and is apparently very confident about the identity of its creator.
During a private event On Friday, held at Bitcoin 2024, the former Fox News host spoke at length about why cryptocurrency is the world’s best tool for enabling financial sovereignty — even though it was invented by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“Obviously it was the CIA, we all know that,” Carlson said with a laugh. “It’s like Signal, they got there first. It’s a honey trap!”
According to Carlson, crypto enthusiasts are highly intellectual and can seemingly answer any question other than those related to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. “Someone should answer that,” he said. “I think we know.”
The conservative podcaster’s comments attracted significant attention online, including from popular English conspiracy theorist David Icke.
Tucker’s theory is nothing new: unfounded stories about the CIA’s involvement in Bitcoin have long been circulating on Reddit.
In fact, the CIA already confirmed who had started cryptocurrency-focused projects to combat ransomware schemes. Former CIA chief Michael Morell went as far as to call him “blessing for vigilance”, considering blockchain analysis a “highly effective crime-fighting and intelligence-gathering tool”.
But that’s as far as the evidence goes, with the rest summing up to skepticism that “some secret guy with a Japanese name” created the first decentralized currency.
For Bitcoin adherents, the man behind Bitcoin doesn’t matter much at this point, as the project’s code and ledger are 100% transparent.
Carlson wholeheartedly agrees with this view. “That doesn’t make it any less of a history-changing technology,” he said. “Encryption gives the average person the freedom to conduct their business without oversight or control.”
Still, to live up to its potential, Carlson believes Bitcoin needs to overcome its adoption hurdle as a medium of exchange, not just a store of value. That includes convincing the general population to accept BTC for payments and making it private enough that they can’t be tracked and punished for using it.
“If you can find a way to solve these problems, I would liquidate and put every bit into Bitcoin — I mean it,” he said. “I think [Bitcoin holds] the key to keeping the country I grew up in alive.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.