Donald Trump brands bitcoin a ‘scam’ that needs ‘very high regulation’

Former president Donald Trump has hit out at bitcoin, blasting it as a “scam” and calling for more regulation around the cryptocurrency.

Donald Trump has said bitcoin is a “scam against the dollar” that needs “very, very high regulation”.

The former president made the comments during an interview with Fox Business on Monday morning.

“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam,” Mr Trump said.

“I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That’s what I’ve always said.”

He went on to insist that cryptocurrencies should be regulated “very, very high”.

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Donald Trump shared his opinions on bitcoin. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

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Since making the comments, bitcoin’s value appeared to fall by over 1.3 per cent, from $US36,472 ($A47,030) to $US35,973 ($A46,368) in just one hour, The Sunreports.

Mr Trump has previously shared his distrust for digital currencies, notably in a July 2019 tweet on his now-deleted account.

He dubbed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as “highly volatile” adding that he was “not a fan” of them.

“Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity,” he wrote in the 2019 tweet.

Friday’s US jobs data put pressure on the dollar as investors bet that jobs growth was not strong enough to raise expectations for the US Federal Reserve to tighten its monetary policy.

There was little movement in major currency pairs and the S&P 500 was modestly lower without US economic data to help give it direction on Monday.

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Trump said the cryptocurrency is a ‘scam’. Picture: Karen Bleier/AFP

The dollar index was down 0.1 per cent while the Aussie dollar was up slightly against the US dollar, at $0.7756.

“At this point it looks like the market really wants to be short dollars. To us it suggests there’s a risk chasing this move. It’s a crowded position,” said Bipan Rai, North America head of FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.

“You’ve already got a sizeable chunk of the market that’s net short US dollars so it feels like we need a shake-out of those positions.”

While Mr Rai said there was “some risk the dollar will rally” he noted that investors are waiting for Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.

The foreign exchange market sees no reason for the Fed to change its monetary policy, “so we’ve still got accommodative monetary policy in the United States,” said Kit Juckes, head of FX strategy at Societe Generale.

Market participants will also be looking at US inflation data and the European Central Bank meeting, both on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission