Veteran investor and billionaire Jeremy Grantham criticised Bitcoin saying that the world’s largest cryptocurrency will “certainly go to zero” over time. Grantham, who earned recognition for warning about the dot-com bubble in 2000 and the US housing market collapse before the 2008 financial crisis, made the remarks during a recent podcast interview and repeated them in a television appearance a day later.
Speaking on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast, Grantham described Bitcoin as an asset with no real economic purpose. He said it serves mainly as a tool for speculation and questioned its value as both an investment and a form of payment.
Grantham said he has never owned Bitcoin and has no plans to buy it in the future. He also clarified that his remarks reflect his personal opinion and do not represent the official position of GMO Asset Management, the investment firm he co-founded. The Boston-based firm manages about $80 billion in assets, reported Stockwits.
Calling Bitcoin “an unnecessary piece of nonsense,” Grantham said it “facilitates nothing except criminals moving money so they can’t be seen.”
Why does Jeremy Grantham believe Bitcoin has no future?
Grantham said that Bitcoin has failed to prove itself as a reliable store of value. He raised concern about Bitcoin’s sharp price swings and said such volatility makes it unsuitable as a long-term investment.
Referring to Bitcoin’s price decline, he said the cryptocurrency dropped to around $60,000 “because it felt like it,” suggesting that its movements often lack clear economic reasons, reported Stockwit.
He also questioned Bitcoin’s usefulness in everyday life. Grantham said that it cannot function as a practical medium of exchange because people cannot easily use it to buy goods and services in most shops.
According to him, speculation remains Bitcoin’s primary attraction. When asked directly whether Bitcoin could eventually become worthless, Grantham gave a firm answer. “It would certainly go to zero,” he said. He added that the process may not happen quickly. “It may take a long time,” Grantham said, before adding, “In the distant future, everything goes to zero,” he added.
A day after the podcast interview, Grantham repeated his criticism during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He described cryptocurrencies as “a useless, speculative mechanism” and predicted they would disappear “not with a bang, but with a whimper.”
Grantham made a distinction between cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He said blockchain infrastructure could become valuable in the future, but insisted that his criticism targets Bitcoin and similar digital tokens rather than the technology behind them.