Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, has warned of a bitcoin selloff. While cautioning investors about investing in bitcoin and the newly launched spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), he said: “I’m not as stridently against these new investment vehicles as Gary Gensler is … At this point, Bitcoin’s been around for 15 years, it’s fairly well-established, and I don’t want to try to stop anyone from speculating in this stuff, as long as they do their research.”
Jim Cramer’s Bitcoin Prediction
Mad Money host Jim Cramer weighed in on the bitcoin price outlook several times this week, particularly focusing on how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could affect its trajectory. Cramer is a former hedge fund manager who co-founded Thestreet.com, a financial news and literacy website.
The price of bitcoin pushed above $47K in anticipation of the SEC approving spot bitcoin ETFs. However, after the approval, it plunged to a low of nearly $40K on Friday. At the time of writing, BTC has slightly recovered and is trading at $41,589. Commenting on the BTC price decline, Cramer wrote on social media platform X Thursday:
Nasty beginning to the bitcoin selloff.
“Someone’s probably going to try to make a stand here but as we said last night you can’t have an asset double in value by hundreds of billions of dollars in anticipation of an ETF and then almost no one shows up,” the Mad Money host added. In a follow-up post on Friday, he opined: “You knew they would make a stand on bitcoin here. Let em try to hold it up for a couple of days.”
Many people challenged Cramer’s statement, arguing that the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs was far from a flop. “It was the biggest ETF launch of all times,” one wrote. Others noted that bitcoin ETFs had already surpassed silver as the second-largest commodity ETF and witnessed massive inflows in just a few days.
Many X users view Cramer’s bearish statements about bitcoin’s price as a bullish sign. The “Cramer effect” has become a popular meme in the crypto world, with many observing that BTC often does the opposite of what Cramer predicts. If he’s bullish, expect a bearish swing, and vice versa.
While maintaining his skepticism, Cramer stated on Wednesday that he’s not necessarily against investing in bitcoin. The Mad Money host proceeded to reference JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon who said this week that he won’t tell people what to invest in but his personal advice is to stay away from bitcoin.
“I’m taking a page from Jamie Dimon here — this is a caveat emptor situation. You can make up your own mind about what to do with these spot bitcoin ETPs [exchange-traded products], I just want to make sure you know what, exactly, you might be putting your money in and how little went into these funds versus how much bitcoin went up,” Cramer described.
Referencing SEC Chair Gary Gensler stating that the regulator’s approval of spot bitcoin ETFs doesn’t mean an endorsement of bitcoin, Cramer stressed:
I’m not as stridently against these new investment vehicles as Gary Gensler is … At this point, Bitcoin’s been around for 15 years, it’s fairly well-established, and I don’t want to try to stop anyone from speculating in this stuff, as long as they do their research. Of course, I’m not totally sure what your research would be, but that’s not my problem.
Last week, Cramer said BTC is topping out. The prior week, he said bitcoin cannot be killed and it’s a ” technological marvel” that is “here to stay.”
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