Crypto is ‘95% fraud, hype, noise and confusion,’ says Fed’s Neel Kashkari

“Cryptocurrency is 95% fraud, hype, noise and confusion,” Kashkari said, speaking at the Pacific Northwest Economic Regional Annual Summit in Big Sky, Mont.

Bitcoin prices were at $44,993, down 2.4% on CoinDesk on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ether ETHUSD, +1.52% on the Ethereum blockchain was changing hands at $3,069, off 3%, while meme coin dogecoin DOGEUSD, +4.85% was trading at around 30 cents, down 5.1%.

Crypto has gained traction among institutional investors in 2021 but is still viewed as a speculative and highly risky trade compared with traditional markets.

Kashkari also offered some of his views on monetary policy plans, noting that he still sees a “a lot of slack” in the U.S. labor market, and suggesting that he might need a couple of more strong jobs reports before he is inclined to support a push to scale back the central bank’s monthly purchases of $120 billion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities.

The Minneapolis Fed president’s comments come amid growing talk about the timing of pulling back the Fed’s COVID-era accommodations and eventually raising interest rates as the economy attempts a recovery from the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.08% and the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.07% snapped five-session win streaks, with some blaming the day’s declines at least partly on growing concerns about a rollback of easy-money policies.

For his part, Kashkari said that it would be reasonable to start reducing bond-buying by the end of 2021, if the job market cooperates.

In July, the U.S. created a robust 943,000 jobs, in what some viewed as a sign that the economic recovery was gaining some steam, despite the latest assault from the delta variant of COVID-19.