Ex-OCC Chief Brooks Calls Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy a Bit ‘Scary News’ for Rest of World

The debasing of global currencies is why companies like Tesla and MicroStrategy are investing in bitcoin and that should be troubling for the rest of the world, former acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks said Monday on CoinDesk TV.

• “For people who are invested in bitcoin it’s exciting news,” said Brooks, who left the OCC last month. “For people who are looking at the rest of the world it’s actually a little bit scary news.”
• Brooks was responding in part to Tesla’s announcement Monday that it’s invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin and would be looking to acquire more digital assets. That news sent the price of bitcoin to a new all-time high.
• The former comptroller noted the U.S. money supply has risen 25% since the start of the pandemic and will be up 40% compared with a year ago once the most recent round of stimulus is done in the next few days.
• “That’s crazy, right?” Brooks asked. “The way inflation works is the more of asset you have the less valuable it is. That would explain why a lot of institutions want to have bitcoin sitting in their treasury because it’s a lot more stable source of value over the long haul, potentially.’
• Brooks declined to say what his next career move will be, only he hopes to be in the space for a long time to come.