Bitcoin prices are displayed on an electronic board at the Bithumb Lounge in Seoul’s Gangnam district on the 25th, as bitcoin fell to its lowest level in 20 months. Yonhap News
Billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham sharply criticized Bitcoin as a “useless speculative asset.” He predicted the cryptocurrency is more likely to slowly slip out of investors’ attention over time than to collapse suddenly in price.
According to CNBC, Grantham appeared on the broadcaster Thursday and said, “Bitcoin will quietly disappear over the coming years and decades.” Borrowing from a verse by T.S. Eliot, he described Bitcoin’s end as coming “not with a bang but closer to a whimper.”
Grantham cited Bitcoin’s failure to prove its usefulness in the real economy as a problem. “Even when the economy is robust, Bitcoin can lose half its value for no particular reason,” he said. “People almost never use Bitcoin to buy a meal or pay at the supermarket.” He went on to argue that Bitcoin is more often abused for purposes such as money laundering than used as an actual means of transaction.
Grantham is a co-founder of GMO, a Boston-based asset management firm. He made his name in the market by warning of the dot-com bubble collapse in 2000 and the 2008 global financial crisis.
His remarks came as cryptocurrency prices continued to weaken. According to Business Insider, Bitcoin’s price is currently below $59,200. It has fallen about 30% this year and stands 53% lower than the $126,000 peak recorded last October. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by trading volume, has also dropped 48% this year.