Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, delivered a scathing critique of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins during a panel at the 2026 Midwest Economic Outlook Summit in Fargo, North Dakota. He labeled the entire asset class as "utterly useless" and dismissed proponents' arguments as "empty rhetoric" and "buzzword salad."
Kashkari specifically targeted the narrative that stablecoins solve the problems of expensive and slow cross-border payments. He presented a hypothetical scenario of a U.S. resident sending money to the Philippines, acknowledging that traditional methods are costly and slow. However, he countered the stablecoin solution by arguing, "Well, you still have to convert it to local currency." He dismissed the idea of a merchant also accepting stablecoins as unrealistic, stating it would require the whole world to use the same currency or for all financial friction to disappear, which he believes "is not going to happen."
Kashkari challenged the industry to provide a legitimate consumer use case, asking, "Give me a use case that actually works for consumers, besides drugs and illegal things." He claimed the answers he receives are nonsensical, saying, "There’s nothing there, just nonsense." To illustrate his point, he contrasted the rapid adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT with cryptocurrencies, asking the audience who had used AI recently versus who had bought or sold something with Bitcoin.
His skepticism stands in direct opposition to the current Trump administration's pro-crypto stance. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that regulated stablecoins can extend the U.S. dollar's dominance in global payments, and President Trump signed an executive order in March 2026 to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve—a policy Bessent advocated for. Kashkari's comments reinforce the Federal Reserve's historically cautious and skeptical position on digital assets, a view he has expressed repeatedly, having previously called crypto a "tool for speculation."
