Controversial Fox News television host Tucker Carlson has proposed a curious conspiracy theory that seeks to link airline delays in the United States and Canada to a rise in the price of Bitcoin.
He suggested that the computer outage that caused thousands of ground flights on January 11 may have been caused by ransomware and theorized that the US government may have bought a large amount of Bitcoin to pay the ransom.
However, he did not provide any proof of his claims.
speaking in his tucker carlson tonight program on Fox News on January 17, Carlson argument that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than 20% shortly after the travel chaos:
“Almost all ransoms like this are paid in Bitcoin. So if the US government were buying large amounts of Bitcoin to pay a ransom, Bitcoin prices would of course rise. So the question is, has that happened? Well, yes, it has happened.”
“Since the nationwide grounding last Thursday, the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed around 20%. Is that a coincidence? she added.
While Tucker’s fanbase online seems to believe the theory is plausible, it was less well received by the crypto community. Nick Almond, the founder of FactoryDAO, described Tucker’s wild theory as “tinfoil to the max” to his 13,500 Twitter followers:
maximum tin foil https://t.co/sUYHV0nQOE
— drnick ️² (@DrNickA) January 17, 2023
Almond answered to supporters of the theory that he highly doubted the US government would buy billions worth of Bitcoin on the open market to pay ransoms.
Blockstream CEO and cypherpunk Adam Back also mocked Carlson to his 506,000 Twitter followers, stating that the two events were exactly what Carlson described: a coincidence:
“is that a coincidence?”, yes, it is a coincidence. LOL
—Adam Back (@adam3us) January 17, 2023
Other arguments against the Crypto Twitter theory included that the US government already has a large amount of confiscated Bitcoin, that the government would buy it over the counter if it bought it, and that Bitcoin is traceable and transparent, large ransoms. they are more likely to get paid in Monero.
Stack Hodler pointed out to his 30,000 followers that FTX’s recovery of $5 billion in assets was a more likely explanation for the rally in crypto markets:
Morning of January 11: All flights landed in the US due to a “critical technology outage”
Afternoon of January 11: FTX says it has recovered more than $5 billion in cash
Tucker Carlson: Did the US government buy Bitcoin for ransom?
You can imagine… https://t.co/Bng9VfxHHU pic.twitter.com/VzwbSdt3s9
— Stack Hodler (@stackhodler) January 17, 2023
More than 1,300 flights were canceled and an additional 10,000 flights delayed in the first two days of the disruption.
Related: Ripple CTO Shuts Down ChatGPT’s XRP Conspiracy Theory
The US Federal Aviation Administration fixed on January 11 that the outage was caused by a “corrupted database file” in its Notice to Air Mission system, which the agency said was not damaged by a cyberattack.
The problem has been fixed and flights have resumed normal operations.
