'Only real, useful purpose' of $100 bills is crime, expert says — which is why a $250 Trump bill would be disastrous

Legislation that would permit Trump’s bill to be produced has languished in Congress since it was introduced in February 2025. Now, nearly 16 months later, senate democrats are asking the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the spending that’s been devoted to what they’re calling “an illegal $250 bill,” which includes designing a mockup of the banknote.

But a recent episode of NPR’s The Indicator From Planet Money podcast revealed another potentially controversial element of the $250 bill, and it has nothing to do with the president’s portrait.

‘A $250 note would be a gift to criminals’

Wailin Wong, one of the podcast’s hosts, recently sat down with journalist and economic commentator Paddy Hirsch, who’s the editor of the podcast. After briefly touching on the opposition and controversy surrounding Trump’s proposed banknote, the two introduced the episode’s theme.

“There’s one area of opposition that hasn’t received much attention, the idea that a $250 note would be a gift to criminals,” said Wong.

“Drug dealers, arms smugglers, people traffickers, money launderers — they all love to use large-denomination notes,” added Hirsch.

But before diving into that, the two discussed how the American people don’t often use cash, as this form of payment represented just 14% of U.S. consumer transactions in 2024.

The hosts then shifted their attention to the $100 bill, the largest denomination that America currently produces with nearly 20 billion notes currently in circulation. However, Wong was quick to note that the Federal Reserve estimates the majority of $100 notes in circulation are currently held outside the U.S.

“So if Americans aren’t using them, who is?” asked Wong. Oliver Bullough, a writer who focuses on financial crimes, offered his two cents on the podcast.

“Why is there so much demand for cash money, despite the fact that ordinary people aren’t using it, is something that I think is explainable, essentially, entirely by its use by criminals,” said Bullough. “The only real, useful purpose for a high-denomination bill is if you want to move a lot of value in a small space at one time, and the only people that want to do that, really, are criminals.”

With this in mind, Hirsch noted that governments around the world are aware of the criminal usage of large banknotes and many are scaling back on producing them. Europe stopped producing its 500-euro note back in 2019, while Singapore stopped printing its 10,000-dollar note back in 2014.

Wong also noted that the U.S. $100 bill is still very popular among criminals despite the rise of cryptocurrency. “That’s because there’s no blockchain attached to a $100 bill, which makes cash even more anonymous than crypto,” she said.

While the hosts made a strong case for the criminal usage of large banknotes, there’s one specific type of criminal they believe could really benefit from a potential $250 bill.

‘Tax dodgers love them, too’

As the New York Times reported in 2021, the IRS estimates it loses around $1 trillion every year to tax evasion. “We lose way more money from tax evasion each year than we make from printing new currency,” said Hirsch.