US President Donald Trump’s deregulation of cryptocurrency markets has introduced new financial risks and threatens to undermine the dollar’s global dominance. Russia, Iran, and North Korea have been the biggest beneficiaries, using crypto to evade American sanctions with impunity.
NEW DELHI—The Ouroboros, the ancient image of a serpent devouring its own tail, has long symbolized self-defeating strategies. It is thus an apt metaphor for US President Donald Trump’s current policies. His reckless and illegal war against Iran is the clearest example, but his administration’s enthusiastic embrace of cryptocurrencies represents a subtler, slower-burning expression of the same self-destructive tendency.