- Nouriel Roubini, a prominent crypto critic, is behind a new crypto project – Atlas Climate Token
- Roubini, who has heavily criticized cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, is now supporting a blockchain-based token
- Despite the project’s noble goals, the crypto community has largely focused on the irony of Roubini’s involvement
In a move that contains more irony than a smelting works, one of crypto’s most outspoken critics has launched his own cryptocurrency. Nouriel Roubini, the man who called Bitcoin a “shitcoin” and said that cryptocurrencies in general have no intrinsic value, is on the team behind Atlas Climate Token, a project that merges climate action with blockchain technology…technology that Roubini once called “the most over-hyped – and least useful – technology in human history.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the project itself and whatever noble goals it may possess have been ignored in the interim while the crypto world tries to get over the hypocrisy.
Climate Change, Blockchains, Partnerships, Oh My!
Roubini’s Atlas Climate Token will be a stablecoin backed by a diverse portfolio of real-world assets, including climate-resilient REITs, strategic commodities, inflation-hedged sovereign bonds, and gold. The objective is to merge tangible, regulated safe-haven assets with both traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) products.
The primary goal of the Atlas Climate Token (ACT) is to serve as a reliable hedge against US dollar instruments, while also functioning as a digital store of value and, eventually, a means of facilitating transactions for vulnerable communities.
Atlas will also introduce an ETF alongside the stablecoin, with the project’s website saying, “The firm is presently in active talks with top-tier ETF issuers and distributors for this launch.” A new coin wouldn’t be a new coin without a partnership announcement now would it? Atlas has created the Atlas Roubini Macro Navigator Index and intends to launch an ETF linked to it in the first quarter of 2024.
Binance Links Anger Changpeng Zhao
If the prospect of the man who once called crypto projects “…a bunch of self-serving greedy white men” pretending to “create billions of wealth out of nowhere” starting his own crypto project alongside a collective of other white men isn’t incredible enough, there’s extra irony attached; Atlas Capital touted one of its leadership team member’s experience at Binance as proof of the new company’s credentials. This is notable because less than a year ago, Roubini called Binance a “walking time bomb” at an Abu Dhabi conference and named its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, as one of the seven c’s of crypto corruption:
“There are seven Cs of crypto: concealed, corrupt, crooks, criminals, con men, carnival barkers, and, finally, CZ.”
Zhao himself railed at Roubini’s hypocrisy, noting how the project also used the Binance logo on its site without the exchange’s permission:
Some people are shameless.
After attacking Binance publicly on stage a year ago, now issues a token and puts #Binance logo on their website WITHOUT permission. 🤡🤷♂️😂 pic.twitter.com/WENaTO4tE4
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 7, 2023
Roubini is yet to comment on his new project, but crypto supporters have been quick to offer their thoughts:
lmfaoooo the mother of all shitcoins.
Roubini? What a fucking joke.
— Local Non-Compliance Officer (@TimeChainer21) November 8, 2023
First you laugh at them, then you criticise them and then you join them. Nourish Roubini’s done exactly that #NourielRoubini #cryptocurrency #crypto
— AbitKryptic (@bitkryptic) November 9, 2023
It’s fair to think that reviews of Roubini’s project might not be kind.
