Australian Senator Gerard Rennick has drawn criticism from the Bitcoin community following his remarks referring to Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme and questioning the asset’s value because it isn’t digestible.

“You can’t eat Bitcoin,” Rennick said in a May 23 X post, responding to an X user who questioned his stance after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22.

Rennick says Bitcoin will go to $1 million but is a “Ponzi Scheme”

“Bitcoin will ultimately go to $1 million dollars. Why because it’s a Ponzi scheme whereby BlackRock will pump more and more dollars into a supply constrained product,” Rennick said.

“What exactly will this product produce?” Rennick said. He added that Bitcoin (BTC) will produce “absolutely nothing” and Australia “needs real engineers not financial engineers.”

Source: Gerard Rennick

Bitcoiners across the world were quick to respond to Rennick’s comments. The Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB) said Rennick’s remarks about “Bitcoin reveal a deep misunderstanding.” The ABIB added:

“This matters, because misunderstanding leads to misrepresentation. And misrepresentation leads to bad policy.”

Unchained podcast host Laura Shin said, “You also can’t eat the internet, so do you oppose that too?” Bitcoin Marathon team lead Jimmy Kostro said, “This is definitely going to age well. Please enlighten us with more of your deep and nuanced understanding of Bitcoin.”

Source: Coinvision

Rennick responded to the criticism and said he doesn’t “need to explain anything.”

“It’s pathetic how the Bitcoin community needs reassurance from a politician – the very people they claim they want to be free from,” Rennick said.

The Bitcoin community has frequently spoken out when prominent individuals have expressed anti-Bitcoin views.

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Only a few weeks ago, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs experienced backlash from the Bitcoin community after her decision to veto a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves.

Casa co-founder and cypherpunk Jameson Lopp said, “This will age poorly.” Meanwhile, Bitcoin entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said, “Imagine the ignorance of a politician to believe they can make investment decisions.” Crypto lawyer Andrew Gordon said, “We need more elected officials who understand that Bitcoin and crypto are the future.”

Similar backlash was seen by the Bitcoin community when the US government decided to transfer $1.9 billion of Bitcoin to Coinbase in December 2024.

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ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood says crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will likely maintain their place in the economy no matter how big crypto wallet adoption becomes over the next decade.

“I think ETFs are an important stepping stone because, you know, wallets seem so complicated, so much friction for consumers, they just wanna push a button,” Wood said at the Solana Accelerate event in New York on May 23.

Wallets remain an insurance policy, says Wood

“So ETFs for those who want the convenience, I don’t think, will lose a lot of their luster,” she said. “But they will be a stepping stone into wallet-based.”

“These are insurance policies against something going wrong in the traditional world.”

Bitbo data suggests that there are around 200 million active Bitcoin (BTC) wallets worldwide. Meanwhile, the trading week ending May 23 saw approximately $2.75 billion inflows into US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, coinciding with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22.

Cathie Wood spoke to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas at Solana Accelerate on May 23. Source: Solana

Since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the US in January 2024, approximately $44.49 billion in inflows have been recorded, according to Farside data. Meanwhile, spot Ether (ETH) ETFs have seen approximately $2.77 billion in inflows since launching in July 2024.

Wood said that spot Ether ETFs were “less successful than people were expecting” because the US Securities and Exchange Commission did not allow staking. On May 21, the SEC delayed its decision on Bitwise’s application to add staking to its Ether exchange-traded fund.

However, Wood still views Ether as the entry point for new investors to familiarize themselves with smart contracts before exploring other cryptocurrencies, such as Solana (SOL).

“So they might start in the smart contract world with Ether, but once they study the technology, and follow the developers, and see the uptake by consumers, I think they will get there,” Wood said.

Related: ‘We are worried about a recession,’ but there’s a silver lining — Cathie Wood

Wood said that the launch of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), in January on the Solana network may have caused investors to be skeptical of Solana.

“Institutions and you’re saying 60-year-olds…I think they might be a little turned off by what happened with the Trump memecoin,” Wood said. Just days after its launch on Jan. 17, TRUMP slid around 50% after the president made no crypto-related “day one” executive orders.

“I mean, that might scare them,” Wood said. Her comments came in response to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reiterating the point that Bitcoin is “so easy” to explain to a “boomer or adviser” as being digital gold, but other cryptocurrencies “are tougher.”

Wood said her Solana price target is in progress and that she will share it once the research is complete.

In April, ARK raised its “bull case” Bitcoin price target from $1.5 million to $2.4 million by the end of 2030, primarily driven by institutional investors and Bitcoin’s increasing acceptance as “digital gold.”

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Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov will not be physically attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, after French courts denied his request to travel to the Scandinavian country.

According to an announcement from the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) — a non-profit organization that advocates for universal human rights and individual liberty, and the host of the Oslo Freedom Forum — Durov will still deliver his keynote address remotely over a livestream.

“It is unfortunate that French courts would block Mr. Durov from participating in an event where his voice is so needed,” HRF founder and CEO Thor Halvorssen said.

Durov continues to be a vocal advocate for free speech and individual liberty. Tech and crypto industry executives closely monitor developments related to Pavel Durov and the implications for individual freedom from his ongoing legal battle in France.

Source: Pavel Durov

Related: Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content

Durov claims French intelligence services asked him to censor conservative voices

Pavel Durov recently accused French intelligence officials of asking him to censor conservative-leaning political content related to the Romanian presidential elections on the Telegram platform.

Durov said that he flatly denied the request. “You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections,” Durov wrote in a May 18 Telegram post.

Although the Telegram founder did not initially name the intelligence official or the European Union country that asked him to censor the content, Durov later revealed more concrete details. The Telegram co-founder wrote in a May 18 X post:

“This spring at the Salon des Batailles, in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe.”

Durov has repeatedly stated that Telegram will not censor political content on the platform and would exit markets before restricting free speech on the social messaging application.

The Telegram co-founder said that complying with such heavy-handed political censorship constitutes a human rights violation.

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