Former Credit Suisse CEO declared Bitcoin ‘a bubble’ years before banking crisis

As Credit Suisse (SWX: CSGN) becomes another banking giant to feel the effects of the widespread crisis that has already crashed several financial institutions and put many others at risk, it is worth reminding of the words of its former CEO, who claimed Bitcoin (BTC) was a bubble.

Indeed, the former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam was skeptical about Bitcoin, arguing that the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset was “the very definition of a bubble,” the anonymity of which presented a challenge, as he stated at a press conference back in November 2017.

“From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble.”

Furthermore, he claimed that the use of Bitcoin in criminal activities was another challenge for the cryptocurrency and that banks were disinterested in getting involved with “a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges.” However, banks jumping on the crypto train later proved Thiam wrong.

Credit Suisse struggles

Ironically, not only did the interest in Bitcoin increase since Thiam said those words, but now his former employer, Credit Suisse, is struggling, and it had to be rescued by Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS. Early optimism about the deal soon deflated, and both CS and UBS shares plummeted.

Several days before, Credit Suisse stock saw a substantial increase upon the announcement that the bank had intended to borrow over $54 billion from the Swiss central bank, as Finbold reported on March 16. However, things have taken a turn for the worse since then.

It is worth noting that, shortly before the UBS acquisition of Credit Suisse, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini warned that the bank might be too big to fail but also too big to be saved, while Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the best-selling personal finance book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” had (correctly) predicted that more banks could come crashing down.

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