'Bitcoin has no practical use': Jeremy Grantham says cryptocurrency will 'lose meaning' if it falls below $60,000

Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham has again criticized Bitcoin, saying it is “useless” and will “gradually cease to be relevant”

In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday, the GMO co-founder argued that it is a speculative asset with no intrinsic value and has time and time again failed to outperform even during strong bull markets.

Bitcoin has fallen below the $60,000 mark

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, fell below the $60,000 mark, down 2.66% from the previous day, to $59,934.04 at midday on June 26, according to data on CoinMarketCap. The token’s market capitalization also fell by 2.75% to $1.2 trillion, while trading volume increased by 3.09% to $45.08 billion.

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies also touched its lowest since May at $2.06 trillion, with trading volume of $101.38 billion, according to the data. Bitcoin maintained its dominance, accounting for 58.2% of the total market, down 1.59%, followed by the second largest token Ethereum, which holds 9.1% of the pie, down 0.77%, and other coins gained 2.37% to capture 32.7% of the market.

“No practical use…”

“(Over) years and years, decades and decades, I suspect it will decline — not with a bang, but with a whimper,” Grantham said. “It’s not a stable form of value — it’s just halved … for no particular reason in a strong economy, so you can’t rely on it that way.”

Grantham said that not only has bitcoin not proven to be a good investment, it also has little practical use. “People don’t use it for serious business, they don’t use it to buy dinner and pay at the supermarket. … It allows fraudsters to move money,” he said.

Why is the crypto market in the red?

According to CoinMarketCap analysis, bitcoin underperformed in an overall weaker market due to a hawkish macro shock from hot May inflation data in the United States, which reignited fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve may raise interest rates.

Piyush Walke, Derivatives Research analyst at Delta Exchange noted that the Fed’s preferred rate of inflation rose to the highest level since 2023. He added that significant ETF outflows added another reason for the decline.

According to Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, “Over the past few days, we have seen profit-taking across assets that has rallied on geopolitical uncertainty and liquidity expectations.”

Apart from this, the rise of AI-related investments has also emerged as a key factor influencing Bitcoin’s price movement.

“Capital has flowed back into select AI and tech stocks, while ETF inflows into Bitcoin have slowed compared to earlier periods. This creates a temporary imbalance where selling pressure is not offset by the same level of buying demand,” says founder WazirX.