Citadel’s Ken Griffin says the exodus from crypto and NFT is good for the economy
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(Kitco News) – Ken Griffin, the founder of Miami-based trading firm Citadel Securities, pulled no punches in a recent conversation with CNBC when he suggested that people move away from the “speculative bubble” that is crypto, non-fungible tokens ( NFTs), and meme stocks are a positive sign for the US economy.
The response came from a discussion surrounding government handouts in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 shutdown, which resulted in investors pumping their newfound cash into these “speculative assets.”
All three of the aforementioned asset classes experienced blowout results at some point in 2021 as traders frantically sought to acquire them amid rapidly rising prices, only to see their values plummet in 2022 amid a major economic downturn.
Now that the bubbles have burst, Griffin sees it as a “healthy” sign for the US economy, which can now begin to regain some order.
“Now that we’ve passed that moment and people are starting to use their savings to travel, eat out, enjoy other things in life that they want, we’re seeing the speculative bubble really deflate,” the billionaire said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Conference on Wednesday.
“And this is healthy for the economy. Money misallocated in speculative assets doesn’t create jobs in the long run, doesn’t help create the long-term prosperity that makes America the country it is,” Griffin said.
The founder of Citadel Securities also noted that younger people, including those who work at the firm, are more interested in crypto because they value privacy and have a more “libertarian view of the world.”
Griffin also alluded to platforms like Celsius and Terra/Luna by saying that “billions of dollars going into companies that are effectively going to go broke, tens of billions” is not good for the markets.
Negative comments about the cryptocurrency sector are nothing new for Griffin, who once called the space a “jihadist conversation” against the U.S. dollar and said he keeps his firm out of the digital asset space because he didn’t want to “help fund North Koreans.”
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