Ron Paul: Anti-Crypto Congressman Is 'Just Another Thug in Washington'

Former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul believes that a call by Rep. Brad Sherman to ban cryptocurrency purchases in the U.S. is a terrible idea.

Appearing on CoinDesk Live at Consensus 2019, Paul discussed a number of topics surrounding the cryptocurrency space, including his belief that the federal government should leave the it alone.

"Whether it's gold or peanuts or silver or whatever, they will not just give cryptocurrencies a free ride."

"I look for colleagues to join with me in introducing a bill to outlaw cryptocurrency purchases by Americans," Sherman said at the time.

Paul called the House Financial Services Committee member "Just another thug in Washington."

"I think anarchy comes from the Brad Shermans of the world, because they break down the world and that's how you have anarchy in [Venezuela], because of ," he said.

That being said, Paul indicated that the present U.S. monetary system and economy may be running on borrowed time, citing high debt levels as one example.

"The system we have today is not viable, it's out of control, the amount of debt that's building up we might end up with the dollar but not the system," he said, pointing to issues such as social, military and corporate welfare as reasons for this.

"There will be liquidation, when the debt gets this big, the debt has to disappear."

"I can only speak for myself but I think it's pretty important is not to come in and the first two to three options on cryptocurrency are 'one's better than another and we want to manage it,' no, you turn it loose you try to keep the government out of it as much as possible."