Billionaire Jeremy Grantham Calls Crypto 'Useless' and 'Speculative Mechanism'

Billionaire Jeremy Grantham is skeptical about crypto's place in the financial world, calling it "useless" and a "speculative mechanism." Grantham noted Bitcoin's recent fall despite strong economic conditions, highlighting its instability as a store of value. Bitcoin was recently trading more than 50% off its all-time high of $126,080.

Billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham won’t be adding crypto to his portfolio any time soon. Grantham, the co-founder of investment firm GMO, made his position on the asset class well known in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday, where he called crypto a “useless, speculative mechanism.” “Years and years, decades and decades—it will dwindle away, I suspect,” Grantham said of its future. “Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

Grantham highlighted Bitcoin’s instability as a store of value, pointing to its recent drawdown—a 52% decline from its all-time high of $126,080 set last October, despite strong economic conditions and gold notching sizable gains during the same timeframe. The commodity and leading store of value asset rose to a new all-time high above $5,500 per ounce earlier this year, but has since fallen more than 25% to trade at $4,096. “You can’t depend on it in that way,” he said of Bitcoin. “People don’t use it to make serious trades, they don’t use it to buy their dinner and pay at the supermarket.” Instead he said it “allows crooks to move money around without leaving a trace,” adding that it’s “brilliant at that.”

Grantham did concede that blockchain rails could play a transformative role in the future, but made clear his comments were about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has fallen 17% in the last month of trading, recently trading at $60,529.