The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is under fire right now as US President Donald Trump and his adviser, Elon Musk, implement their bureaucratic cost-cutting campaign.
According to reports, many projects risk losing funding and support, and thousands of jobs now hang in the balance. However, USAID’s problems don’t end here; the agency is also facing criticism from the crypto community over its alleged questionable funding of a book linking Bitcoin to right-wing extremism.
The latest personality to target the agency is Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, who says that it’s funding projects to portray cryptocurrency as a tool for “right-wing extremism.”
Hoskinson shared his thoughts on USAID’s possible role, describing the current situation as “garbage” and admitting that he’s frustrated with the stream of online misinformation going on these days.
USAID’s Funding In The Spotlight
Hoskinson’s tirade against the agency stemmed from a post made by WikiLeaks on February 10th. According to the post, David Golumbia, the author of “Cyberlibertarianism: The Right Wing Politics of Digital Technology,” received around $80,000 in government grants.
Golumbia was also the author of “The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism.”
So apparently, USAID is funding the production of propaganda that says Bitcoin is right-wing extremism.
I’m so done with this garbage https://t.co/hG9ViJiW0A
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) February 10, 2025
These books, purportedly funded by USAID, found links between Bitcoin and right-wing ideologies. The books are now a reading list for college classes at Duke University and the University of Southern California.
Some critics immediately pounced on these revelations from WikiLeaks, questioning whether these institutions had fact-checked these books before seeing print.
Hoskinson Condemns Negative Propaganda Vs. Bitcoin
Hoskison is one of the key personalities who has been defending Bitcoin and blockchain technology against negative propaganda. He explains that Bitcoin works as a decentralized financial system and doesn’t fit into any specific political system. He blasted USAID for implying that Bitcoin is a tool for right-wing extremism, calling it “a garbage argument.”
Other Bitcoin and blockchain supporters have consistently offered counterarguments, saying that propaganda aims to promote economic freedom and financial inclusion. Many crypto supporters say that propaganda belittles the contributions of decentralized technologies like Bitcoin.
BTC Price Remains Shaky
Like USAID, Bitcoin has been in the limelight lately, continuing its sideways price movements near the $100k level. The top digital asset trades above $97k, displaying its resilience amid the political noise and economic policy shifts.
Based on current market dynamics, it seems that market participants are again waiting for another set of drivers that can push the flagship crypto’s price above $100k.
Also, other countries are pushing for crypto regulations and creation of reserves. Recently, Japan announced that it’s tweaking its regulations, with plans to classify cryptocurrency assets as financial products.
Featured image from Gemini Imagen, chart from TradingView
