According to Edward Snowden, Bitcoin would be even stronger after China’s ban.
In a recent tweet he wrote:
“China even banned it, but it just made Bitcoin stronger”.
Sometimes I think back to this and wonder how many people bought #Bitcoin then.
It's up ~10x since, despite a coordinated global campaign by governments to undermine public understanding of—and support for—cryptocurrency.
China even banned it, but it just made Bitcoin stronger. https://t.co/pbnOFGfaVf
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 3, 2021
Snowden cited an earlier tweet of his from 13 March 2020, when the price of BTC was just over $5,000, at the height of the global stock market crash due to the pandemic.
Summary
Snowden supports bitcoin against government dictatorships
On that day he said that the crash was irrational, and only due to excessive panic, so it was the first time in quite some time that he had felt like buying bitcoin again.
In today’s tweet, he commented that he was wondering who bought BTC at that point, as it has since increased in value by about 10 times, despite a coordinated global propaganda campaign by governments to undermine public understanding and support.
According to Snowden, many governments, most notably China, are trying to discredit Bitcoin in order to prevent ordinary citizens from fully understanding it and becoming supporters of it.
None of this happened in March 2020, when the collapse of bitcoin’s price was due to a global collapse of all financial markets because of fears generated by the pandemic. Afterwards, however, there were several attempts to discredit it, led by China itself.
The Asian country, this year, has returned to the use of negative propaganda against Bitcoin, in some ways similar to how it did back in 2017. Arguably when the price of BTC rises quickly and significantly some government officials get scared, and start criticizing it.
The rulings issued against Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
However, according to Snowden, this attitude has only strengthened Bitcoin, not least because after an initial moment in which the FUD actually succeeds in negatively influencing the market price, in these cases there is often a rebound that brings the price back more or less to where it was before, in fact reinforcing its image as an extremely resilient asset in the long run, at least until now.
Snowden is well known for his anti-government positions, and especially against illiberal regimes, so it is not surprising that he is extremely critical of governments that try to discredit Bitcoin as a financial instrument too free to be compatible with their authoritarian regimes.
However, it must be said that in reality not many governments have actually banned cryptocurrencies like the Chinese one. Particularly in democratic countries, not only does this ban not exist, but in some it is the Constitution itself that prevents its application. For example, in India, the government tried to issue a ban on cryptocurrencies, but this was later withdrawn due to the fact that it was ruled unconstitutional.
On the one hand, it is hard to imagine that other large states will follow China’s example, while on the other, it really seems that China’s defiant attitude will only strengthen an asset that has already proven over time to be extremely resilient.
It is even possible that, much like after the 2017 ban, the Chinese will resume using cryptocurrencies even after the 2021 ban, simply by using tools that are increasingly difficult to track and block.
