Billionaire Jeremy Grantham Dismisses Bitcoin, Says Crypto Will Fade ‘With a Whimper’

Billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham won’t be adding crypto to his portfolio anytime soon.

Grantham, the co-founder of investment firm GMO, made his stance on the asset class known in an appearance on CNBC‘Squawk Box’ on Friday, where he called crypto a “useless, speculative mechanism.”

“Years and years, decades and decades – it will go away, I guess,” Grantham said of its future. “Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

Grantham emphasizes Bitcoins instability as a store of value, highlighting its recent decline – down 52% from its all-time high of $126,080 in October last year, despite strong economic conditions and gold posting significant gains over the same period.

The commodity and main store of value rose to a new record ever above $5,500 an ounce earlier this year, but has since fallen more than 25% to $4,096.

“You can’t depend on it that way,” he said of Bitcoin. “People don’t use it to make serious transactions, they don’t use it to buy their dinner and pay at the supermarket.”

Instead, he said it “allows criminals to move money without leaving a trace,” adding that it is “brilliant.”

Grantham admitted that blockchain rails could play a transformative role in the future, but made it clear that his comments were about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin is down 17% over the past month of trading, recently trading at $60,529.

Last month, billionaire investor Mark Cuban did the same criticized Bitcoin’s role as a store of valuepointing to the recent underperformance compared to gold, saying: “It’s not the hedge I expected.” Cuban added that he has sold most of his BTC as a result.