In a CNBC interview given on December 20th, a former US Congressman, Ron Paul, said that he believed the American government had stoked the fire of escalating prices in the cryptocurrency markets with their injurious monetary policies.

Paul expressed his belief that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were merely reflecting the \'disaster\' of the US fiscal system, whereby excessive amounts of credit are created by a process known as quantitative easing. This process encourages central banks to buy up government debt, together with other financial assets, and is aimed at an unnecessary expansion of lending to assist the financial markets.

This easing process, Paul believes, is one of the contributing factors in the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies. These currencies might still have emerged, even without America\'s huge inflation and the quantitative easing policies, Paul said, but the bubble buying phenomenon currently making headlines would have been much less likely.

Paul is an acknowledged supporter of cryptocurrencies, saying in October 2017 that although bitcoin was not considered a form of real money, the government should nevertheless be careful how it attempted its regulation. Furthermore, in an online poll he conducted on Twitter, the former US Representative asked people in what form they would take a $10,000 gift for savings, to which more than 50% opted for bitcoin over dollars, and even gold.