- Jeffrey Robinson claimed in 2015 that Bitcoin would be dead by 2025
- Robison claimed Bitcoin was “pretend commodity”, but CFTC has since ruled otherwise
- Robinson refused to double down on his 2025 theory, saying Bitcoin was already a relic
Jeffrey Robinson, the financial crime author who predicted that Bitcoin would be defunct by 2025, has doubled down on his claim that Bitcoin is a nothing more than a relic. Robinson, who self-published an eBook called BitCon – the Naked Truth About Bitcoin in 2014, is a noted Bitcoin sceptic, comparing it to a “religion” and its disciples as being part of a “delusional cult”, and he has reasserted his claim that Bitcoin has already failed.
Bitcoin the “Pretend Commodity”
Robinson’s prediction dates back to a February 2015 interview with International Business Times (IBT), in which he claimed that Bitcoin was a “pretend commodity” that the government could kill in “two minutes” if they desired. However, instead of “dying” as Robinson claimed it was back then, Bitcoin has gone from strength to strength, not just in terms of its price but how it is viewed around the world – indeed, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) now asserts that Bitcoin is indeed a commodity.
Of particular interest however is Robinson’s claim in the IBT interview that Bitcoin would be dead and gone by 2025:
I say 10 years from now we will all have digital currencies – fiat currencies – and bitcoin will be remembered probably much like Pogs and Sinclair’s C5.
For the uninitiated, Pogs were a collectible craze in the 1990s and the Sinclair C5 was a single-seater battery powered car from the 1980s, both of which singularly failed to turn their temporary hype into a long term commercial proposition. In 2015, Robinson saw Bitcoin in the same boat, despite much evidence to the contrary.
Robinson Doubles Down on Rhetoric
So, at the halfway point of Robinson’s prediction, we thought we’d check in with the author and see how he thought his prediction was going. The following is a transcript of the Twitter exchange:
FC: Jeffrey – five years ago you said that Bitcoin would disappear within 10 years. How do you feel your prediction is panning out at the halfway point?
JR: Satoshi #bitcoin/blockchain is failed experiment. Pretend currency use is mostly phony, otherwise non-existent. Serves no purpose except to bilk gullible with pump-n-dump #scams. Domain of grifters and conmen. Not an investment. Proud that everything I wrote in #BitCon stands.
FC: You still stand by it being defunct in 5 years?
JR: I stand by every word I wrote in #BitCon. It’s already useless.
FC: I’m talking about an interview with IBT in 2015 in which you said: “I say 10 years from now we will all have digital currencies – fiat currencies – and bitcoin will be remembered probably much like Pogs and Sinclair’s C5.” Do you still stand by that?
JR: Bitcoin is already pogs.
Clearly nothing has changed Robinson’s mind in the intervening years, not even Bitcoin’s increasingly recognized potential as a government-agnostic store of value, with his final tweet suggesting that he thinks that Bitcoin has already been consigned to the trashcan of fads.
Five years worth of development doesn’t seem to tally with Robinson’s outdated theories, but when do zealots ever let facts get in the way of their opinions?
