Jeremy Grantham Calls Bitcoin 'Useless' and Predicts Its Gradual Demise

Jeremy Grantham, the legendary co-founder of GMO who accurately predicted both the dot-com crash of 2000 and the housing market collapse of 2008, has delivered a scathing verdict on Bitcoin. During a rare television appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box on June 26, 2026, the veteran investor described BTC as "a useless, speculative mechanism" and forecast that the asset would slowly fade into irrelevance over the coming decades.

Grantham's criticism centers on three core arguments. First, Bitcoin generates no yield. Second, it lacks stable value. Third, it fails to function as a practical currency in everyday transactions. In his view, these three flaws collectively disqualify Bitcoin from being treated as a legitimate financial asset.

One of Grantham's sharpest attacks targeted Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism. He argued that the enormous amounts of energy consumed to validate transactions produce zero economic benefit for society. In his characteristic blunt style, he stated: "Proof of unnecessary work shouldn't be worth a bucket of warm spit, and it will not be." For Grantham, burning vast energy resources to maintain a ledger without generating real-world value is simply indefensible.

On the question of monetary utility, Grantham was equally dismissive. He pointed out that Bitcoin is not accepted at grocery stores, nor is it used to settle major institutional transactions. Without a functioning payment layer in daily commerce, he argued, the asset cannot credibly claim monetary legitimacy. He further rejected the narrative of Bitcoin as a store of value. Unlike equities, it pays no dividends and produces no cash flow, leaving investors without any rational basis to determine a fair price.

Grantham's views command attention due to his extraordinary forecasting record. He identified the dot-com bubble before it burst and warned of the US housing crisis well ahead of 2008. More recently, he extended his bubble thesis to US equities fueled by artificial intelligence hype, projecting potential downside of up to 70% for American stocks. That said, his timing has not always been perfect — his 2021 call on an "epic bubble" in US stocks came early, as markets continued rising before eventually correcting in 2022.

The comments arrived as Bitcoin was trading near $60,500, a steep drop from its late-2025 peak of over $126,000. Adding to the bearish backdrop, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $6.35 billion over the 30-day period through mid-June 2026, signaling a notable pullback in institutional interest.

Grantham is far from alone in his skepticism. Longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has made similar arguments over the years, insisting that BTC possesses no intrinsic value. Meanwhile, even within the crypto industry, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has flagged AI infrastructure costs as an emerging variable that could reshape capital flows across the digital asset space.

Whether Bitcoin can hold critical price support through Q3 2026 will serve as a real-world test of both the bulls and the bears. Grantham himself did not predict an immediate collapse — rather, he envisions a slow, prolonged decline playing out over years or even decades. For now, the debate between long-term skeptics and Bitcoin believers shows no signs of resolution.