Tucker Carlson Refuses to Buy Bitcoin, Says It’s a CIA Operation

Carlson claims Bitcoin enables “totalitarian control,” warning digital currencies could enforce obedience.

Tucker Carlson has claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created Bitcoin (BTC), saying the mystery around its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, makes him distrust the cryptocurrency.

Speaking at a Turning Point USA event on October 22, the Conservative commentator said he would never invest in Bitcoin because he believes it was designed by financial elites to control society.

Bitcoin’s “CIA Origins” Theory Gets New Airtime

In his speech, Carlson admitted that while he loved the idea of financial autonomy that Bitcoin represented, the reality was starkly different, with crypto becoming a “scam” run by a “coalition of beneficiaries,” to further their control of American society.

“I’m really afraid of a digital currency because that is totalitarian control,” he claimed. “If you can punish people, if you can zero out their bank account and keep them from eating, you will have total obedience.”

The former Fox News host added that he was a gold buyer and does not invest in things he does not understand. He questioned how a trillion-dollar asset could have an anonymous creator and why Satoshi’s estimated one million BTC have never been moved.

“Nobody can explain to me who Satoshi was, the creator of Bitcoin, this mysterious guy who apparently died,” said Carlson. “I grew up in DC, primarily in a government family, so, CIA,” he added.

The theory that a government agency created Bitcoin has been around for a while, but Carlson’s remarks have given it renewed attention. That idea gained some traction in 2020 when The Washington Post revealed that the CIA had secretly owned Swiss encryption firm Crypto AG for decades, using it to spy on more than 120 countries by selling them rigged devices.

Within hours of Carlson’s speech airing, Bitcoin supporters challenged his assertions on X. Strike CEO Jack Mallers wrote:

“If you think knowing who created Bitcoin matters, you don’t understand it. Bitcoin is open source. Nobody has special rights, and everyone can verify that.”

Broadcaster Max Keiser also dismissed the CIA claim, saying it contradicts the well-documented history of Bitcoin’s development. Others mocked the media personality’s distrust, with Marty Bent, host of the Tales from the Crypt podcast, remarking:

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“Even if the CIA did create Bitcoin (it didn’t), anyone can audit the code to see what it does. That’s all that matters.”

Still, some agreed with Carlson’s broader concerns about government power. One of them, Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs, while laughing off the CIA theory, argued that Carlson’s fear of financial surveillance is valid. He warned that crypto can be used for bad instead of good if built poorly.

The Enduring Mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto

The search for Satoshi has become a sort of global puzzle after the person, or people, behind the name completely vanished from public view in 2011.

Last year, an HBO documentary suggested that late cryptographer Len Sassaman could be Satoshi. Just days before that, the film’s director pointed to Peter Todd as the man behind the pseudonym, but the former Bitcoin developer firmly denied the claim. In the same year, a UK judge formally ruled that computer scientist Craig Wright, who had claimed to be Satoshi, was not the BTC creator.

Despite the setbacks, people have not given up on solving the mystery. Some, like crypto lawyer James Murphy, have taken the legal route, suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in April 2025 for records that might reveal Satoshi’s identity.