Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has equated buying Bitcoin (BITCOMP) with purchasing air in a recent media interview.

Image: Gage Skidmore on Wikimedia/Benzinga

What Happened: 

NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Warren if she was buying Bitcoin, was she "buying a share of stock, or am I buying a pork belly, or am I buying euros? What am I buying?"

"Or are you buying air?" Warren replied, calling Bitcoin an “ephemeral token” and saying its value was tied to people’s perceptions. 

“With bitcoin, there's no thing that backs it up," said Warren. "It's just belief."

Why It Matters: 

Warren said instead of Bitcoin “we could be talking about digital currency," adding that those currencies would be backed by governments.

Warren said Iran and North Korea use cryptocurrencies to avoid financial sanctions, and that Russians are “very sophisticated” in dealing with them.

The senator said the Bank of Russia had authorized banks to deal in cryptocurrencies due to financial sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

When asked about Dogecoin (DOGE-X) and whether it exposed a “big flaw” in Bitcoin, Warren said, “I don’t think it exposes a big flaw, it says 'guys, this is what you said it is.'”

“I made this up and I’m having great fun with it, and people then get engaged and they have confidence in it, so they bid up the value of it.”

Warren called for basic safety regulations for cryptocurrencies just like they are in place for electrical appliances such as toasters. 

“They shouldn’t be able to burn you down," she said.

​​Warren's Past Takes:

Last year, Warren said cryptocurrency had “created opportunities to scam investors, assist criminals, and worsen the climate crisis.

Her views have earned her criticism from Tesla Inc (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Dogecoin’s co-creator Billy Markus. 

Markus dubbed Warren “satan” this month after it was reported that she was drafting a bill to track transactions between private cryptocurrency wallets.

Price Action: 

At press time, over 24 hours, Bitcoin traded 0.8% lower at $46,023.23 while Dogecoin traded 1.1% lower at $0.15, according to data from Benzinga Pro.