   
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who once likened Bitcoin to a Beanie Baby, clashed with the crypto community on Monday when he declared the digital asset was only useful for buying drugs and other criminal activities.
Kashkari is not a friend of cryptocurrencies
Kashkari claims that cryptocurrency payments are primarily related to illegal activities. Speaking Monday at a Wisconsin City Hall event hosted by the Chippewa Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, he said cryptocurrencies are being used for “a very small number of transactions.”
“People are buying and selling cryptocurrencies, but they are not paying for goods or services. This rarely happens unless people are buying drugs or doing other illegal activities. No,” Kashkari told the audience.
The remarks highlight Fed officials' opposition to cryptocurrencies despite increasing adoption of the asset class by financial institutions.
Kashkari has long voiced well-worn and toxic criticisms of Bitcoin and the crypto industry in general. In 2020, for example, he called cryptocurrencies “a giant garbage dump.” And in 2021, he claimed that the crypto industry is primarily made up of “scams, hype, and noise.”
 Kashkari’s comments on Monday immediately drew sharp rebuttals from prominent members of the crypto community, who attacked X in defense of the asset class.
Hayley Lennon, a partner at Brown Rudnick, told Kashkari that “legitimate crypto projects in this space have state-of-the-art anti-money laundering policies to prevent this.” Ta. “We have been fighting this false narrative for decades.”
Nick Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, joined the chorus of voices deriding Kashkari's misguided comments about how cryptocurrencies can be used. “I think something this wrong should be illegal,” he opined in an Oct. 21 post about X.
Carter also noted that the Fed's comments were even more concerning given that he ranks among the top in the world. “Top 10 Most Important Financial Regulators on Earth”
Moreover, the data shows that Mr. Kashkari could not have been more wrong. A report conducted by blockchain detective Chainalysis earlier this year revealed that only 0.34% of all cryptocurrency transactions in 2023 could lead to any kind of criminal activity.
