NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, has warned that “99.99% of crypto is a scam, a criminal activity, a total real-bubble Ponzi scheme that is going bust.” He advised investors to “absolutely stay away” from crypto, claiming that most people in the crypto space are “all crooks.”
Dr. Doom Warns Nearly 100% of Crypto Is a Scam
Economic professor Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, warned about cryptocurrency in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Roubini is a professor of economics and international business at New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. He also serves as chairman of Roubini Global Economics, a global macroeconomic and market strategy research firm that he co-founded. He told the news outlet:
Literally, 99.99% of crypto is a scam, a criminal activity, a total real-bubble Ponzi scheme that is going bust.
Dr. Doom also shared his opinion on the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). FTX filed for bankruptcy last November and SBF is currently facing several fraud charges , all of which he has pleaded not guilty to. “FTX and SBF are not an exception — they’re a rule,” Roubini exclaimed.
The NYU professor proceeded to advise against investing in cryptocurrencies. He stated that 99% of bitcoin investors did not buy BTC at $1,000 or $10,000. “Most of them got FOMO [fear of missing out] in 2021 when it was skyrocketing from $20,000 to … $69,000,” he stressed, emphasizing that 99% of bitcoin investors bought the cryptocurrency “well above the current market value.”
Roubini opined, “So they lost their shirts. It’s a nightmare.” Dr. Doom noted that bitcoin investors are not alone in losing money as other cryptocurrencies “have fallen by 90%, 95%.” He added: “Out of 20,000 ICOs [initial coin offerings], officially 80% were a scam and another 17% have gone to zero. So that means 97% of them … were either a scam or lost everything.”

Regarding crypto investing, Roubini advised:
You have to stay away. You have to absolutely stay away. And most of these people belong literally in jail — literally, they’re all crooks.
The NYU professor of economics has long been a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies, claiming that most crypto proponents are conmen. He called Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) “a walking time bomb.”
Recently, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, warned that most crypto tokens will fail , urging investors not to FOMO into this asset class. Meanwhile, a former SEC enforcement official, John Reed Stark, cautioned that an SEC regulatory onslaught is just beginning.
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