Jeremy Grantham Says Bitcoin Will Fade Away Gradually

Billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham, a longtime critic of Bitcoin, said in a CNBC interview that the world’s largest cryptocurrency will steadily lose importance until it disappears. Grantham, a co-founder of investment firm GMO, called Bitcoin a “speculative and useless asset” with no real intrinsic value.

“It will simply fade over years and decades, in my opinion, not with a bang but with a whimper,” he said. He argued that Bitcoin is not a reliable store of value because it has lost half its value without any special trigger, even during a strong economy, so it cannot be trusted.

Grantham also said gold, often seen as Bitcoin’s rival, has performed better over the same period, even though it has pulled back from its highs. He said Bitcoin has failed both as a quality investment and as a useful means of payment. “People do not use it for significant transactions, they do not buy dinner with it, and they do not pay at supermarkets,” he said. “What it does allow is criminals to move money.”

Grantham is known for warning about financial bubbles, including the dot-com bubble, the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis, and inflated stock valuations. Bitcoin remains highly volatile, and in each of its market cycles so far it has lost at least 70% from that cycle’s peak. It was trading at about $59,600, roughly 52% below its latest record, and some investors expect weakness to continue in the coming months.