As cryptocurrencies gain institutional backing and regulatory frameworks take shape, one senior central banker remains firmly opposed.
Neel Kashkari has made it clear that the evolution of the crypto market has done nothing to change his mind. From his seat at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Kashkari continues to argue that digital assets offer little practical value to everyday users.
Key Takeaways
Neel Kashkari remains one of the Federal Reserve’s most outspoken crypto critics, showing no shift in his stance despite market growth and regulation.
He argues that crypto still lacks clear, everyday use cases and has not proven its value in advanced economies.
Market crashes and enforcement actions have reinforced, rather than weakened, his long-standing skepticism.
Rather than seeing crypto as a financial breakthrough, he views it as an industry still searching for a reason to exist in a developed economy.
A record of blunt assessments
Kashkari’s criticism stretches back well before the recent waves of adoption and regulation. Years ago, he dismissed the crypto market as unserious, pointing to how easily new tokens could be created without meaningful standards or oversight. To him, that lack of barriers undermined any claim that the sector was building durable financial infrastructure.
His tone hardened further as the market expanded. At one point, he openly welcomed tougher action from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that loose rules had allowed investors to lose enormous sums chasing speculative projects with little substance.
Market crashes didn’t change his view
When crypto prices collapsed in 2022, some critics softened their stance, acknowledging that innovation could still emerge from the wreckage. Kashkari went the other way. He framed the downturn as a necessary correction and suggested that an earlier implosion was preferable to a larger one later, when even more capital and public trust might have been at risk.
From his perspective, the crash confirmed what he had been warning about all along: that hype had outpaced real economic usefulness.
Use cases still “unconvincing”
Even after years of development, Kashkari remains unconvinced that crypto has found a meaningful role beyond speculation. In later remarks, he questioned how much legitimate economic activity actually occurs on blockchain networks, arguing that transaction volumes tied to everyday commerce remain negligible.
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He has repeatedly suggested that the gap between the industry’s promises and its real-world impact is too wide to ignore, reinforcing his belief that crypto fails to solve problems that existing financial systems cannot already handle.
Standing apart as attitudes shift
Kashkari’s stance now places him at odds with a growing segment of policymakers and financial institutions that see crypto as a permanent, if risky, feature of the global financial system. While others focus on refining rules and managing risks, the Minneapolis Fed president continues to challenge the premise itself.
For Kashkari, the debate is not about how to regulate crypto, but whether it deserves legitimacy at all. And despite years of market cycles, innovation claims, and regulatory change, his answer has remained unchanged.
