WisdomTree Chief Economist Jeremy Siegel Says Bitcoin Threatens Dollar Dominance

Wharton Business School professor and WisdomTree chief economist Jeremy Siegel said bitcoin could challenge the U.S. dollar as the world’s main reserve currency.

Speaking on CNBC, Siegel said bitcoin is “a threat,” The Economic Times reported Tuesday (Sept. 9).

Siegel said, per the report, that bitcoin could challenge the dollar because crypto-based systems may offer a faster, more efficient alternative to traditional international transfers and because bitcoin is seen as “digital gold” with a fixed supply that makes it a limited resource.

PYMNTS reported in August that venture capitalist Tim Draper grabbed headlines in June when he predicted that bitcoin would replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency within the next decade.

That report said the scenario may turn out to be improbable or impossible. It noted that bitcoin’s persistence in the public imagination has been more remarkable than the cryptocurrency’s achievements, as it continues to attract coverage as though its true potential lies just around the corner, even after a decade of underperformance.

When the White House released its long-awaited report on digital asset policy on July 30, it said stablecoins will keep the dollar dominant.

The report fulfilled the mandate of Executive Order 14178, which directed the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets to propose policy and regulatory recommendations that protect American’s right to use digital assets and blockchains lawfully; promote innovation in financial infrastructure; reinforce the sovereignty of the U.S. dollar; and oppose implementation of a central bank digital currency.

Shortly after the President Trump signed into law the first tangible piece of successful crypto policy in the U.S., the GENIUS Act, in July, PYMNTS reported that stablecoins offer a dollar global firms can use in a global economy where central banks wobble, currencies inflate and cross-border wires take days.

“Stablecoins represent a revolution in digital finance,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time in a statement provided to PYMNTS. “The dollar now has an internet-native payment rail that is fast, frictionless and free of middlemen. This groundbreaking technology will buttress the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, expand access to the dollar economy for billions across the globe.”