Billionaire Who Called The Dot-Com Bubble And 2008 Housing Crash Now Says Bitcoin Will 'Certainly Go To Zero'

• Jeremy Grantham said Bitcoin will "certainly go to zero" and called it a speculative asset with no practical utility.
• Grantham reiterated his criticism on CNBC, while acknowledging blockchain technology could have long-term value.
• The comments come with Bitcoin trading more than 50% below its October peak near $126,000.

Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham, well known for calling the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 housing collapse, said Bitcoin (BTC) would "certainly go to zero," renewing his long-running skepticism of cryptocurrency.

Speaking on Steven Bartlett's "The Diary of a CEO," on Thursday, Grantham called Bitcoin "an unnecessary piece of nonsense" that "facilitates nothing except criminals moving money so they can't be seen," and said he owns none, has never owned any, and does not intend to. The billionaire added that his comments reflected his personal views, not those of GMO Asset Management, the Boston firm he co-founded, which managed $80 billion in assets.

Bitcoin Criticism Remains Unchanged

Grantham dismissed Bitcoin as a store of value, pointing to its slide to $60,000 "because it felt like it," and argued it fails as a medium of exchange because it cannot be easily spent in shops. The token did one thing well, he said, serving as a vehicle for speculation.

Asked directly whether Bitcoin would reach zero, Grantham said it would "certainly go to zero," though he allowed that it "may take a long time," adding that "in the distant future, everything goes to zero."

He pressed the same case a day later on CNBC's "Squawk Box," calling crypto a "useless, speculative mechanism" and predicting it would fade "not with a bang, but with a whimper." In that appearance, Grantham conceded that blockchain rails could play a transformative role in the future, but said his criticism was aimed specifically at Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Comments Come Amid Bitcoin Drawdown

The comments landed as Bitcoin traded more than 50% below its October peak of about $126,000, near $60,000, giving fresh weight to Grantham's critique of the asset's instability. His warnings carry weight because of his record flagging the dot-com and housing bubbles, though his market-timing calls have not always been precise.

Bitcoin’s price was down by 0.9% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC moved to ‘neutral’ from the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter around it stayed in the ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Read also: Strategy's mNAV Cracks Below 1 For The First Time, Exposing The Cost Of Saylor's No-Sell Vow— Here's What Analysts Say Comes Next

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.