Chanos Calls Bitcoin ‘Last Thing I’d Want to Own’ in a Crisis

Short seller Jim Chanos, who predicted the fall of Enron Corp., has developed a view of Bitcoin: It would fail in a crisis.

Fiat currencies such as the dollar have advantages when things go awry, because governments can enforce their use and act as lenders of last resort, Chanos said in an interview with the Institute for New Economic Thinking published on Monday. Digital coins, on the other hand, have no such backing.

“For those who believe that you need to own digital currency as a store of value in the worst-case scenario, that’s exactly the case in which a digital currency will work the least,” he said. “The last thing I’d want to own is Bitcoin if the grid goes down.”

Food would be better, he said.