'Dr. Doom' economist Nouriel Roubini says the crypto industry is a 'total criminal enterprise' riddled with market manipulation

• Nouriel Roubini said crypto markets are chock full of criminal activity and manipulation.

• The famed economist described the industry as a "criminal enterprise" in a Tuesday tweet.

• Earlier this year, the crypto bear said the space is a "total real-bubble Ponzi scheme that is going bust."

Nouriel Roubini is taking aim at crypto again this week.

The famed economist said in a tweet on Tuesday the trillion-dollar industry is chock full of "constant market manipulation" and a "total criminal enterprise."

—Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) March 28, 2023

His remarks pointed to claims from a well-known pseudonymous crypto blogger, Bitfinex'ed, that token prices jumped prior to financial regulators enforcement actions, accusing exchanges of inflating the market by coordinating with their "market faker friends."

This isn't the first time that the "Dr. Doom" economist has slammed digital assets.

Earlier this month, he celebrated the downfall of banks that cozied up to the crypto industry. After Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate failed, Roubini ratcheted up fiery commentary with a simple message: "Good riddance."

The US government's decision to backstop customer losses for Signature and SVB was "sickening," he wrote. "What is the logic of protecting the depositors of Signature Bank, a bank that recklessly decided to jump into the crappy crypto cesspool & bet the house on shitcoins biz?"

In comments earlier this year, Roubini said "literally 99% of crypto is a scam" and a "total real-bubble Ponzi scheme that is going bust."

"You have to stay away [from crypto], you have to absolutely stay away," Roubini, one of the economists to call the 2008 recession, previously told Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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