Jordan Belfort, a former Wall Street scammer now an author has pounced on bitcoin saying those investing in it have been brainwashed.
In an interview with CNBC, Belfort who had spent 22 months in jail for scamming customers said bitcoin still thrives only because more investors have been “brainwashed” to invest in it, stressing that it will still come to doom.
“I was a scammer. I had it down to science, and it’s exactly what’s happening with bitcoin,” he said during an interview included in the network’s cryptocurrency documentary, “Bitcoin: Boom or Bust,” which premieres on Monday. “The whole thing is so stupid, these kids have gotten themselves so brainwashed,” he said. “We don’t even know how bad it really is.”
This is not the first time as Belfort had mentioned in September last year that cryptocurrency is fraudulent, saying ICOs are the “biggest scam ever”. He also said those promoting ICOs were involved in a “massive crime of the highest order”.
He had claimed earlier this year following bitcoin’s six month fall that bitcoin had come to its end, referring to investors as fools in a Youtube video emphasizing that bitcoin will fall as he had warned, despite its increasing popularity.
According to him, bitcoin scammers have piled up large quantities of bitcoin which they intend to empty on innocent retail investors in the industry who will be swept off before they know it.
He warned investors with a “good heart” saying:
“For the average person who’s really — you know, with a good heart, who walks in saying, ‘I just — I want — I do because I believe in it, in the long term thing,’ just f—— run.”
“This thing is going to evaporate like a mirage,” he added. “There’s a lot of really honest people who are going to get slaughtered.”
It is interesting to note that the 2013 movie “Wolf of Wall Street” portrayed Belfort’s criminal acts for which he was asked to pay his scam victims money amounting to over $110 million.
Belfort’s boldness in speaking against cryptocurrency is not surprising considering the fact that major business heads such as Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, and Ray Dallio have questioned the authenticity of bitcoin in the past.
He believes bitcoin can only be accepted in society if it has the backing of government which it doesn’t have right now and so is certain to fail and those investing in it have no idea what they are doing.
