‘Dr. Doom’ economist Nouriel Roubini says Elon Musk’s tweets about bitcoin ahead of Tesla’s investment are ‘market manipulation’ and that the SEC should investigate

‘Dr. Doom’ economist Nouriel Roubini says Elon Musk’s tweets about bitcoin ahead of Tesla’s investment are ‘market manipulation’ and that the SEC should investigate

Nouriel Roubini, an economist known as "Dr.Doom" for his pessimistic market views, said Elon Musk's tweet about bitcoin ahead of Tesla's investment in the cryptocurrency is a form of "market manipulation" and the SEC should investigate.

"First take an individual position in bitcoin, pump the price up, and then say that Tesla has invested," Roubini said in an interview with CoinDesk on Wednesday. "It's also irresponsible and it's market manipulation. The SEC should be looking into people that have a market impact that manipulate the price of assets. That's also criminal behavior." 

Roubini has been a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies, often referring to the industry as a "speculative asset bubble" and even calling some of the digital assets "s-t coins."

On Wednesday, the NYU economist released an op-ed in the Financial Times that called bitcoin's fundamental value negative due to its environmental impact.

Read more: A Ruffer portfolio manager invested a portion of his $4.8 billion fund in Bitcoin. Here's what swayed him to bet on crypto - and the 2 other ways he's hedging against worrying speculative bubbles

Roubini's criticism of Elon Musk comes after Tesla announced it bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin on Monday and said it plans to accept the digital currency as