Tucker Carlson Outlines Wild Theory to Explain Bitcoin Price Surge: ‘Maximum Tin Foil’
Controversial Fox News TV host Tucker Carlson has proposed a strange conspiracy theory that tries to link airline delays in the US and Canada with a rise in the price of Bitcoin.
He suggested that the data breach that grounded thousands of flights on January 11 may have been caused by a ransom, and theorized that the US government may have purchased a large amount of Bitcoin to pay the ransom.
However, he provided no evidence for his claims.
Talking about his Tucker Carlson tonight program on Fox News on January 17, Carlson argued that the Bitcoin (BTC) price increased by over 20% shortly after the travel chaos:
“Almost all ransoms like this are paid in Bitcoin. So if the US government was buying massive amounts of Bitcoin to pay the ransom, of course Bitcoin prices would go up. So the question is, has that happened? Well yes, it has.”
“Since the nationwide ground stop last Thursday, the price of Bitcoin has shot up about 20%. Is it a coincidence?” he added.
While Tucker’s online fanbase seems to think the theory is plausible, it was less well received by the crypto community. Nick Almond, the founder of FactoryDAO, described Tucker’s wild theory as “maximum tin foil” to his 13,500 Twitter followers:
Almond answered to supporters of the theory that he strongly doubted the US government would buy billions in Bitcoin on the open market to pay for the ransom.
Blockstream CEO and cypherpunk Adam Back also mocked Carlson to his 506,000 Twitter followers, stating that the two incidents were exactly what Carlson described them to be – a coincidence:
Other arguments against the theory on Crypto Twitter included that the US government already has a large amount of confiscated Bitcoin, that the government would buy it over the counter if it bought it, and that Bitcoin is traceable and transparent, large ransoms. are more likely to be paid in Monero.
Stack Hodler pointed out to his 30,000 followers that the recovery of $5 billion in assets by FTX was a more likely explanation for the recovery in crypto markets:
More than 1,300 flights were canceled and another 10,000 flights were delayed during the first two days of the disruption.
Related: Ripple CTO shuts down ChatGPT’s XRP conspiracy theory
The US Federal Aviation Administration stated on January 11 that the disruption was caused by a “damaged database file” in its Notice to Air Mission system, which the agency said was not damaged by a cyber attack.
The problem has been resolved and flights have resumed normal operations.
