Jim Cramer Is Selling His Bitcoin Over Quantum Threat—Crypto Twitter Is Thrilled

CNBC host and long-time crypto critic Jim Cramer is out on Bitcoin—again. This time it’s over fears of the coming quantum computing threat, and it sounds like he might be out for good. Which is music to the ears of Bitcoin investors everywhere who prefer to be on the opposite side of the “Cramer trade.”

“Should I be more careful?” Cramer asked late last week while interviewing IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, worried about whether quantum computers would be able to steal his coins.

“I think that you should give yourself three or four years,” Krishna replied, “and at that point, I would get rather paranoid about it.”

Cramer did not wait three or four years. “I realize I’m waiting. Ethereum, really, maybe even worse. So I think that people have to take this man seriously because they’re doing commercial quantum,” he said while commenting on his interview. “Arvind Krishna knows quantum incredibly. He knows Bitcoin and quantum. And I’m going to sell mine.”

“He’s the man,” Cramer continued. “Three, four years. David, you know when three, four years is going to happen? Like tomorrow.”

The clip went around fast, pulling 89,000 views on X, and over 9,000 views on YouTube.

“Thank you Jim!” read one of the top replies. “Letssss goooooooooooo,” went another. One user simply asked: “I thought he already did.”

The inverse Cramer trade

That gratitude isn’t sarcasm so much as strategy. Traders have spent years tracking the “inverse Cramer” pattern—the running joke that the reliable move is whatever he didn’t say.

Somebody built a fund on it. Tuttle Capital launched the Inverse Cramer Tracker ETF in 2023, betting against his picks, alongside a Long Cramer fund betting with them. Both closed. The long version died first, the short version followed in February 2024 with $2 million in assets.

“We started it in order to point out the danger of following TV stockpickers, Jim Cramer specifically, and the total lack of accountability,” portfolio manager Matthew Tuttle said. “We feel like we have accomplished that mission.”

The Bitcoin record is why the meme stuck. Cramer said he’d sold everything and wouldn’t touch crypto “in a million years” in December 2022, with Bitcoin at $16,796. It gained more than 400% over the next three years.

He reversed course in January 2024, calling Bitcoin a “technological marvel” that’s “here to stay.” He has also dared people to bet against him and pushed back on claims he called the top. Last Christmas, tracker Unbias logged his calls as fully bearish while Bitcoin sat near $87,500.

Bitcoin rose about 1.6% on the day he announced the sale.

It’s worth noting, though, that no one we’re aware of has confirmed the size of his position, or that it even exists. Cramer hasn’t publicly shared any Bitcoin wallet addresses, so there’s no way to check.

The part that isn’t a joke

The underlying research behind quantum is real, even if the timeline is arguable.

On July 30, IBM and University of Chicago researchers demonstrated quantum advantage with something previous milestones lacked—verification. Using 70 logical qubits and a new error-correction method, they ran a computation in about 15 minutes that classical methods can’t feasibly reproduce, and proved the answer was right. That’s the “Chicago study” Cramer kept referencing, and Decrypt covered what it means for Bitcoin.

Sampling circuits is not breaking elliptic curve cryptography. Those are different problems, and the second one needs machines far beyond anything demonstrated.

But the exposure is genuine. Coinbase’s quantum advisory council estimates roughly 7 million Bitcoin could eventually be vulnerable through exposed public keys and address reuse. Ark Invest and Unchained call the threat real but not imminent. Post-quantum standards exist, and Bitcoin developers have been arguing about how to adopt them for years.

So Cramer picked a legitimate risk and doubled down on a timeline that remains debatable.

The market’s response was to buy his exit. We’ll see who’s right.