Bill Harris, co‑founder and former CEO of PayPal and a vocal Bitcoin critic, spoke out again yesterday. In an interview with CNBC’s Fast Money, he asserted that Bitcoin has no value and that its price will trend toward zero.
Earlier in April, Harris published a scathing piece on Recode in which he left no cliché unused. Calling him merely “not enthusiastic” about Bitcoin would be an understatement. He described Bitcoin as “the biggest scam in history” and “a colossal pump‑and‑dump scheme” unlike anything the world has seen.
On CNBC’s Fast Money yesterday, the former PayPal CEO labeled Bitcoin a “cult” that is “headed straight to zero.” When asked to explain his reasoning, he replied:
I don’t think I said it will go to zero; I said that at some point it will be very close to zero, because it has no value.
He continued:
Put simply, the cult of Bitcoin makes many claims: that it’s instant, free, scalable, efficient, secure, globally accepted and useful. None of those things are true.
Harris conceded that moving money across borders is difficult, but he insisted the world needs faster networks — not Bitcoin or XRP — to transfer funds internationally.
I see absolutely no reason why Bitcoin is useful. Listen, it’s just volatility, which makes it worthless as a payments mechanism and ridiculous as a store of value.
He reserved the oldest cliché for the end: according to Harris, Bitcoin’s only practical use is for criminal activity.
I’m not saying there aren’t wonderful visions in the world that should be financed. […] In the case of Bitcoin, apart from criminal activity, I can’t find a single reason for it.
Arguments Against Harris’s Claims
“Bitcoin’s value will go to zero”
Recent research from Yale University economists has estimated a very low probability that Bitcoin will collapse to zero. The study by Aleh Tsyvinski and Yukun Liu applied standard finance methods to cryptocurrencies and concluded the chance of Bitcoin becoming worthless is around 0.3%.
The researchers analyzed Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ethereum, comparing their behavior to traditional asset classes such as stocks, fiat currencies, and precious metals. They concluded that investors could consider allocating a small share of their portfolio to Bitcoin, suggesting a target allocation somewhere between 1% and 6%.
“Bitcoin’s volatility makes it unsuitable as an alternative currency”
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum are still early‑stage technologies. Despite that, an increasing number of companies, online merchants, and retail outlets already accept Bitcoin, and mainstream adoption continues to grow.
Reports frequently note that more businesses, shops, and even some banks and nations are recognizing BTC as a legitimate payment method. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently described Bitcoin as a “major innovation.” Exchanges such as Nasdaq have also considered offering cryptocurrency trading, and ICE — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — has promoted institutional platforms like Bakkt. Over recent months, infrastructure for institutional investors has expanded significantly, suggesting the young market may continue to mature.
“Bitcoin has no intrinsic value”
Since the U.S. dollar was decoupled from the gold standard in 1971, fiat currency systems have generally operated on the basis Harris describes: value is rooted in collective trust and government backing rather than a physical commodity.
Even some traditional finance strategists have warned about the vulnerabilities of fiat systems. For instance, a Deutsche Bank strategist highlighted how decades of departing from gold backing have led to persistent deficits, expansive monetary policy, and large‑scale credit creation. These dynamics, some argue, can weaken confidence in fiat currencies and create conditions in which alternative assets receive increased attention.
Commentators point to rising deficits and expanding balance sheets in major economies as part of the backdrop driving interest in non‑fiat stores of value.
“Bitcoin is mainly used by criminals”
Multiple studies have contested the claim that Bitcoin is primarily a tool for criminal activity. While illicit uses exist, research shows such uses represent only a minority of overall Bitcoin transactions. The cryptocurrency ecosystem includes a range of legitimate use cases — payments, remittances, digital asset custody, programmable finance and more — even as regulators and law enforcement continue to address criminal misuse.
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