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Ex-Goldman CEO Blankfein Says Governments Would Likely Try to Shut Down Bitcoin if It Becomes Too Successful
Blankfein misrepresented bitcoin's traceability and falsely claimed users are blind to their counter-parties.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 11:01 a.m. Published Jan 26, 2021, 8:21 p.m.
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Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein pooh-poohed bitcoin's "store of value" and "medium of exchange" propositions on CNBC Monday, stressing that if the cryptocurrency ever grew to a substantial size the regulators would likely move to shut it down.
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- "If I were a regulator, I'd be, you know, I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of [bitcoin] at the moment and I'd be arming myself to deal with it," Blankfein said.
- The finance executive asserted that bitcoin users have no way of knowing if enemy states like North Korea and Iran are counter-parties to their transactions. He then seemingly implied there's no way to monitor bitcoin transactions, ignoring entirely the cryptocurrency's inherent traceability.
- Bitcoin's success at weathering the regulator's impending storm could serve to undermine its most appealing attributes, Blankfein said.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Here's what bitcoin bulls are saying as price remains stuck during global rally
It's about a lot more than "zooming out." Supply overhangs and investor "muscle memory" regarding gold help explain bitcoin's poor absolute and relative performance.
What to know:
- Bitcoin has failed so far to act as an inflation hedge or safe-haven asset, lagging badly behind gold, which has surged amid high inflation, wars, and interest rate uncertainty.
- Crypto advocates argue that bitcoin’s weakness reflects a temporary supply overhang, investor “muscle memory” favoring familiar precious metals and its correlation with risk assets, rather than a collapse in long-term demand.
- Many bitcoin proponents still see BTC as a superior long-term store of value and “digital gold,” predicting that, once traditional hard assets are overbought, capital will rotate into bitcoin, allowing it to “catch up” to gold.
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