Elon Musk warns against weaponizing currencies as the de-dollarization movement takes hold

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Elon Musk warns against weaponizing currencies as the de-dollarization movement takes hold
A man holds up dollar bills in a money exchange office in Istanbul, Turkey.YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
  • Elon Musk warned against weaponizing currencies like the US has done, given the de-dollarization trend has taken hold.
  • "If you weaponize currency enough times, other countries will stop using it," the Tesla CEO said.
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Elon Musk has warned against weaponizing currencies as a de-dollarization movement among other countries gathers steam.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO responded to a video post by economist Peter St Onge, in which he highlighted that "de-dollarization is real and is happening fast."

"Dollar share went from 73% (2001) to 55% in (2020). Went from 55% to 47% since sanction launched on Russia, now de-dollarizing at 10x faster than the previous two decades," Onge said.

To that effect, Musk responded: "If you weaponize currency enough times, other countries will stop using it."

Musk was likely attributing the decline in demand for dollars across the board to the US "weaponizing" the greenback in the form of financial sanctions against the likes of Russia and China, specifically by freezing their dollar reserves or threatening to lock them out of the SWIFT system.

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In the face of the dollar's weaponization, even US allies like Thailand and the Philippines are beginning to show interest in the anti-dollar drive.

Europe also appears to be adopting efforts to undermine the dollar's supremacy, with French president Emmanuel Macron recently warning against the continent's dependence on the greenback.

Meanwhile, central banks including China, Russia and India, are leading the revolt against the US dollar by dumping the greenback and buying gold, according Ruchir Sharma, to the chair of Rockefeller International.

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