American investor Robert Kiyosaki reiterated calls for investment in cryptocurrencies and precious metals on Friday — contending that the US dollar was on its way out. The Rich Dad Poor Dad author claimed that the BRICS grouping had announced its own ‘gold-backed’ currency and sounded a fresh warning about ‘hyperinflation’. The remarks came even as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a closely-watched trip this week.
‘Bye-bye US dollar’
“BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa announces the ‘Unit’ — a gold-backed ‘money’. Bye-bye US dollar! Stand by, stay awake, stay tuned in. Don’t be a loser. My forecast is that savers of the US dollar will be the biggest losers. If you own US Dollars….hyperinflation may wipe you out. I stand by my mantra, own gold, silver, Bitcoin, and Ether. Take care, stay alert,” he wrote on X.
The prominent investor has been vehement in his support for assets such as gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum in recent months — recently calling silver “the best and the safest” option.
New BRICS currency?
Claims about a US dollar alternative have circulated repeatedly over the past two years without any official announcement. Vladimir Putin had also sparked buzz about a new currency after photos showed the Russian President holding a prototype ‘BRICS banknote’ during the Kazan Summit in October 2024. Top officials have subsequently clarified that the group has no immediate plans for a currency launch.
At the 2024 BRICS Summit, the movement away from US dollar supremacy really came to a head when Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on stage holding what appeared as a prototype of a possible BRICS banknote.
However, he soon backed away from his previous aggressive calls for de-dollarization, stating the goal of the BRICS member nations is not to move away from the US dollar-dominated SWIFT platform, but rather to deter the “weaponization” of the US dollar by developing alternative systems for using local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and with trading partners.
“We are not refusing, not fighting the dollar, but if they don’t let us work with it, what can we do? We then have to look for other alternatives, which is happening,” Putin told listeners.
“We do not have this goal of building a single currency in BRICS at this stage in point. This has to be done very carefully, prudently and we need to use national currencies. We need to use the wider capacity of the new development bank of BRICS,” Putin told media ahead of a visit to India.
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