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CNBC host Jim Cramer on Monday said he sold nearly all his bitcoin holdings amid various concerns surrounding the cryptocurrency.
"Sold almost all of my bitcoin," Cramer said during Monday's Squawk on the Street. "Don't need it.
The comment came two months after Cramer revealed he used bitcoin profits to pay off his mortgage.
While Cramer did not reveal exactly how much he owned, he said that he bought the digital currency when it was worth $12,000, the level bitcoin was trading at in 2019.
Bitcoin has fallen roughly 50% from its all-time high of $65,000 in April.
"I'm saying that this is not going up because of structural reasons," Cramer said, referring to bitcoin's value.
The Mad Money host pointed to China's toughening stance towards cryptocurrencies, from ramping up a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining to ordering domestic banks and payment platforms not to provide services related to virtual currencies.
"When the [People's Republic of China] goes after something, they tend to have their way," he said. "It's not a democracy. It's a dictatorship."
He continued: "I think that they believe it's a direct threat to the regime because what it is, is a system that's outside their control."
Cramer also blamed a string of recent cyberattacks, which have been a stark reminder of the unregulated nature of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
"In our country, I think it's outside of our control when it comes to ransomware, and I doubt that Colonial is the first company to pay ransomware," Cramer said. "I think the Justice Department and the FBI and the Federal Reserve and Treasury could coalesce and say, 'OK guys, if you pay ransomware, we're going to go after you.'"
In April, the Colonial Pipeline was hit with a ransomware attack, which led to gas shortages and outages up and down the East Coast. Shortly after, JBS, the world's largest meat supplier, announced it was the victim of a similar hack.
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See Also:
- Regulators are reportedly sounding the alarm over stablecoins, fearing they are poorly understood and could be used to launder money
- A VC shares the crypto investing strategy that increased his fund size sixfold in 4 years. He lays out his unique use case for betting on Polkadot's DOT — a token that's surged 200% this year
- The top US portfolio manager at $2 trillion Amundi believes a regulatory storm is coming for cryptocurrency. He explains why bitcoin and ether won’t play a bigger role in the financial system in 10 years than they do now.
