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Long-time crypto critic Jim Cramer appears to have had a change of heart—at least regarding Bitcoin. “You can’t kill it,” the Mad Money host said on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street show on Tuesday.
Along with Warren Buffett and his late business partner, the CNBC host has been notoriously bearish on cryptocurrency. But Cramer says Munger missed the boat on Bitcoin.
“The late Charlie Munger, who was so brilliant on so many things, was blind to this,” Cramer said.
Cramer's comments come as the number one cryptocurrency by market capitalization crossed $45,000 on January 1 for the first time since April 2022. It was in June of that year that Cramer noted a growing pessimism about crypto in Silicon Valley after the last market dump, which he dubbed “Crypto Monday.”
"A lot of younger people and people who borrowed money, they are going to be gone today if they are not careful,” Cramer said at the time.
Cramer's track record of dubious calls has been the source of multiple eye rolls from the crypto faithful, even inspiring an Inverse Cramer meme and applications for an Inverse Cramer ETF. The hook? Doing the opposite of everything Cramer says. And now that he's warming to Bitcoin, some crypto faithful are worried.
“Shit, now Bitcoin is dead,” prominent Bitcoiner Dan Held wrote on Twitter.
“Does that mean BTC is doomed?” Director of Operations at Nillion, Amro Shihadah, said.
Cramer’s tone began to change in November after Bitcoin crossed $38,000, which also led some to speculate a subsequent drop because of the notion that the opposite of anything Cramer predicts will happen.
Despite his previous comments, Cramer called Bitcoin a technological marvel today, and noted the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's inability to shut it down.
“It's a reality and it's a technological marvel,” Cramer added. “I think people have to start recognizing that it's here to stay; the SEC has been against it the whole time.”
Even though Cramer may be changing his tune on Bitcoin, he did note that enthusiasm does not translate to the crypto market as a whole.
“Now, that doesn't mean that every one of these is here to stay,” Cramer said. “But I do think that it's about this, a remarkable comeback, that was unexpected. Except for all the bulls who turned out to be right.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.