Bitcoin Critic “Black Swan” Author Praises Gold as Central Banks Stacking It

Renowned scholar, risk manager and author of bestselling books such as “Black Swan,” “Antifragile” and “Skin in the Game,” Nassim Nicholas Taleb has taken to his account on the X social media platform (formerly known as Twitter) to praise Bitcoin’s rival in the physical world – gold.

He also drew his followers’ attention to the real “de-dollarization” taking place around the world. Meanwhile, Taleb continues to criticize the world’s flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

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Taleb speaks of "de-dollarization," praising gold

Nassim Taleb addressed his community of X followers to mention that there is real “de-dollarization” of the world taking place, however, it has been going mostly unnoticed by ordinary people.

He clarified that this process is not about trade settlements, because these transactions are still labelled in U.S. dollars as an “anchor currency.” However, Taleb mentioned an important detail. He said that despite settling transactions in U.S. dollars, central banks, especially those from the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been storing gold. These banks have been putting their free reserves into this risk-off asset.

He also proudly pointed out that gold has surged by approximately 30% year-on-year – spot gold has seen an increase from $2,043 on Jan. 2 to $2,508 on Sept. 10.

Taleb remains Bitcoin denier

Nassim Taleb is a Bitcoin lover-turned-critic. Five years ago, he believed in Bitcoin as a perfect alternative to fiat money, when the so-called WhatsApp Revolution in his native country, Lebanon, took place, and banks refused to release cash to customers.

However, in 2020, he switched sides, stating that he had become disappointed in Bitcoin due to its high volatility. Since then, he has claimed Bitcoin to be a “tumor” in the body of the economy and has been taking every chance to criticize it.

Earlier this year, Taleb teased a new book he is working on at the moment. It will be called the Lydian Stone (also famous as the “touchstone”). That is a flint stone that used to be leveraged by people to verify the quality of silver and gold. The book will be “partly on how humans get confused by sequences,” according to Taleb. “It also maps to the arrow of time and Entropy,” he specified.