Crypto Hype Man worries people on TV hype crypto too much

Jim Cramer, the TV clown your grandfather watches when he can’t find the remote, had some horrifying news for viewers of the CNBC show Mad Money on Tuesday. Apparently there are people on TV overhyping crypto, according to Cramer. Yes, you read that right.

Jim Cramer, the guy who told people to buy ethereum for $2900, shortly before crashed to $965, is extremely concerned about people on TV promoting crypto. And while Cramer admits he’s made money from crypto — though he hasn’t disclosed how much or exactly when he sold — he thinks it’s time for TV journalists to stop reporting on crypto as seriously as the stock market.

“I’m starting to think these are Seinfeld assets. They are about nothing,” Cramer said Tuesday in a reference that is more than 30 years old.

Cramer went on to talk about all the small cryptocurrencies that are currently traded on major exchanges like Coinbase and explained that people who run pump-and-dump schemes can face legal problems. Cramer then followed up with another dated cultural reference—this time to Webistics, a story about a fictional financial scam from the Sopranos that was sent in 2000. After all that, Cramer seemed to land on something resembling a point.

“I’m starting to wonder if one day soon we won’t even need these [cryptocurrencies] quoted on the side of the TV screen anymore,” Cramer said. “Wouldn’t need to or maybe…shouldn’t.”

You can tell Cramer really thought he was making a deep point about journalism ethics when he said this. You can see it in Cramer’s face—the look a basset hound might make when he thinks you’re hiding his favorite toy.

“I think it’s time we start questioning the fundamentals of crypto, and I don’t like when [we] questioned the dot com movement in 2000-2001. “When all things crypto took off with great fanfare like the dot com bombs, we were told they were stores of value, that they mattered, that they would be there for a long time,” Cramer said.

“I believed in that wrap, 300 of them went bankrupt,” Cramer continued. “At least I’m big enough to admit that this time I was wrong about crypto. I wish the real promoters would do the same.”

Then Cramer’s segment really went off the rails and failed to provide even the smallest amount of self-reflection.

“Just because you make money off of it, as I was fortunate enough to do, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s real,” Cramer said, in what might be the most awkward line of his entire monologue.

“And then there was this period where all the athletes and celebrities were appearing in these crypto ads. A brooding Joel Embiid, the funny time-traveling Matt Damon, a young-as-ever Tom Brady. LeBron James going to the league, Reese Witherspoon being a genius, and even Gwenyth Paltrow, who is all over the place but still didn’t go to her cousin Rebecca’s wedding, Cramer continued.

The problem, of course, is that Jim Cramer was incredibly bullish on crypto at the exact same time these ads from other famous people were published. Cramer even told people to buy ether at $2,900, a price that still looks incredibly high here at the end of August.

“I think ethereum is amazing. I’m a believer. And I think you can easily get 35-40 percent,” Cramer said on his show 28 April 2022.

Ethereum continued to plummet after Cramer’s prediction, falling to just $965 following his recommendation. But if Cramer made money from crypto, it makes you wonder when he sold. Cramer didn’t really start getting pessimistic on crypto until maybe July. Has he sold before then? Or is he just talking about his acting in 2021 when he says he made money?

At one point in Cramer’s monologue on Tuesday, after rattling off the list of celebrities who promoted crypto earlier this year, the Mad Money host actually said, “anyone who’s promoted this looks pretty funny.” The fact that he fails to follow up his comment with a montage of all the times he promoted crypto on CNBC feels like a missed opportunity.

The clip from Cramer’s show last night is available at YouTube and it’s worth watching if you haven’t seen Cramer perform his little clown routine in a while. Cramer’s act is really starting to show its age. His cadence is incredibly stilted and his arm movements are awkward, making you wonder how long he can keep the whole song and dance going. Because it’s hard to imagine Gen Z watching this nonsense. Back in June, Cramer even went so far as to say that Gen Z was buying too many $14 margaritas at his restaurantnot to mention how many of his investment tips have been disasters for the people involved.

It’s a real mindset that you can make money trading the opposite of what Jim Cramer suggests on TV every day, known as Reverse Jim Cramer Strategy. But in this case, Carmer is definitely right, even if it’s a little late and he’s already been paid.

Investing in cryptocurrency is nothing but gambling. True believers will argue about how bitcoin is a store of value or about how it is a finite asset because of the math involved. But it simply doesn’t matter. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in circulation, is a speculative asset that does not actually function well as a currency, and while there is a finite number of coins, people can create an infinite number of new “final” coins: Bitcoin 2.0, Bitcoin 3.0, and so on .

Or, as we have seen in the real world, there are coins that Luna, Forsaken, AXS, Celsius… you take the point. There is nothing there but smoke and mirrors.