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Paul Krugman: Paul Krugman (2023)

Paul Krugman

Nobel-winning economist and bitcoin skeptic

Known for
2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics[1]
Role
Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center[1]
On bitcoin
“What problem does it solve?”[5]
BTC at “Bitcoin Is Evil”
$716 (Dec 28, 2013)[9]

Photo: Paul Krugman (2023) by The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped.

“it remains completely unclear why BitCoin should be a stable store of value.”
Paul Krugman, Dec 28, 2013 · New York Times blog, “Bitcoin Is Evil” (original)

Every quote is checked word for word against the original post or video, linked above.

Bio

Paul Krugman is an American economist and Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In 2008 he was the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, for work on new trade theory and new economic geography.[1]

He was a New York Times columnist from 2000 to 2024 and now writes on Substack.[1][7]

He has been skeptical of bitcoin since at least 2013, when a blog post titled “Bitcoin Is Evil” questioned whether it could be a stable store of value. He has kept up the critique for more than a decade, most recently calling crypto mostly a tool for crime and scams.[2][7]

On the record: bitcoin quotes

Krugman has written about bitcoin since at least 2013, first on his New York Times blog and columns and, since leaving the Times in 2024, on Substack. A selection, oldest first. NYT columns are paywalled, so we link the free blog archive or free reports that quote them. Part of our series Bitcoin's greatest hot takes.

  1. In a New York Times blog post titled “Bitcoin Is Evil”:

    “To be successful, money must be both a medium of exchange and a reasonably stable store of value. And it remains completely unclear why BitCoin should be a stable store of value.”

    Paul Krugman, “Bitcoin Is Evil,” The Conscience of a Liberal blog, New York Times (Dec 28, 2013), free archive copy

    BTC $716 that day → $81,269 on Oct 17, 2026 (×114)

  2. In his New York Times column “Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I'm a Crypto Skeptic,” as quoted by CCN:

    “Cryptocurrencies, by contrast, have no backstop, no tether to reality. Their value depends entirely on self-fulfilling expectations – which means that total collapse is a real possibility.”

    CCN via Yahoo Finance, “Bitcoin is Erasing 300 Years of Monetary Evolution: Nobel Economist Paul Krugman” (Jul 31, 2018), quoting his NYT column “Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I'm a Crypto Skeptic”

    BTC $7,725 that day → $81,269 on Oct 17, 2026 (×11)

  3. a16z published his talk from a September 2018 debate with Katie Haun in Mexico City, where he asked of crypto: “What problem does it solve?”

    “From the point of view of monetary economists, we're setting the clock back 300 years.”

    a16z, “A Skeptic's View of Crypto (2 of 3)” (Nov 2, 2018), Krugman's talk at a September 2018 debate in Mexico City

    BTC $6,348 that day → $81,269 on Oct 17, 2026 (×13)

  4. On Substack, in “Crypto Is Still for Criming”:

    “Money-laundering and scams that exploit naïve investors aren't unfortunate behavior that taints a potentially useful enterprise. For crypto, they are the whole game, more or less the only reason cryptocurrencies exist.”

    Paul Krugman, “Crypto Is Still for Criming,” Substack (May 9, 2025)

    BTC $102,941 that day → $81,269 on Oct 17, 2026 (−21%)

  5. On Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, as bitcoin tumbled below $61,000 (per Bloomberg). Bloomberg's description says he argued that “if there's going to be a Bitcoin collapse, it should happen now before it becomes too big and interconnected with other asset classes.”

    Bloomberg Podcasts on YouTube, “Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman Calls Bitcoin ‘Total Bust’” (Feb 5, 2026), video and description

    BTC $63,495 that day → $81,269 on Oct 17, 2026 (+28%)

    The headline is Bloomberg's.

Prices: daily close in USD from the Coin Metrics Community API (terms). “Now” is the latest close, Oct 17, 2026. A higher price today doesn't prove a critic wrong about everything, and it is not a forecast.

The argument, fairly stated

Krugman's critique comes from monetary economics, and it has three main parts. Here they are in his words, followed by the usual bitcoiner replies.

Krugman's case

  • No use case. Money should be as frictionless as possible; bitcoin recreates the costs of metallic money. “From the point of view of monetary economists, we're setting the clock back 300 years.”[5]
  • Energy and cost. In a16z's summary of his 2018 talk, bitcoin uses resources like computing power and energy, “much like we once did with gold mining.”[5]
  • No backstop. Crypto's value “depends entirely on self-fulfilling expectations,” so total collapse is possible.[3]
  • Crime. In 2025 he wrote that money laundering and scams are “the whole game, more or less the only reason cryptocurrencies exist.”[7]

The bitcoiner reply

  • The problem it solves is in bitcoin's white paper: a system that would “allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” The energy is what secures that without a trusted middleman.[10]
  • On stability, the record cuts both ways: bitcoin was about $716 when he wrote “Bitcoin Is Evil” and $81,269 (Coin Metrics close, Oct 17, 2026), but it remains volatile: it closed at about $63,500 on Feb 5, 2026, the day of his Bloomberg interview, down from about $89,200 at the Jan 28, 2026 close (Coin Metrics).[9][8]
  • In the 2018 debate, a16z's Katie Haun answered him on intrinsic value, volatility and scaling; the full debate is on video.[6]

Prices are Coin Metrics daily closes. NYT columns are paywalled, so we link the free blog archive or free reports that quote them.

Timeline

  1. 2008

    Wins the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics[1]

  2. Dec 28, 2013

    Blogs “Bitcoin Is Evil”[2]

  3. Jul 31, 2018

    Column: “Why I'm a Crypto Skeptic”[3]

  4. September 2018

    Debates Katie Haun in Mexico City[6]

  5. May 9, 2025

    Substack: “Crypto Is Still for Criming”[7]

  6. Feb 5, 2026

    Bloomberg interview, headlined “Calls Bitcoin ‘Total Bust’”[8]

Connections

No sourced connection to the other people on this site yet. We only draw links we can document.

Elsewhere on CHS

Sources

Checked Oct 17, 2026 · All people