The legendary host of CNBC's Mad Money show has once again changed his rhetoric regarding the first cryptocurrency. Less than a month after publicly stating he had fully liquidated his Bitcoin positions, Jim Cramer is now strongly recommending that investors buy BTC directly, bypassing derivative instruments.
This reversal has sparked a new wave of discussion among traders, who have once again recalled the so-called "Inverse Cramer" — an unwritten market rule according to which betting against the media star's recommendations yields more profit than following his advice.
Context: From Panic to Buying
As a reminder, at the end of July, Cramer announced the sale of all his coins. The reason was concerns raised by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna during the same program. Krishna warned that within the next three to four years, quantum computers could reach a level of development sufficient to crack Bitcoin's cryptographic protection.
However, in the latest episode of the show, a telling dialogue took place. A viewer named Sanjay asked about the fate of Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) shares — a company whose securities provide indirect exposure to Ethereum. Cramer's answer was unequivocal: he advised exiting such derivative instruments and buying bitcoin directly, arguing that derivatives in the cryptocurrency market carry too high a risk.
Market Dynamics and the "Cramer Effect"
It is worth noting that since his announcement of selling, the asset has shown impressive growth. At the time of the deal announcement, BTC was trading around $63,700, and today it is already storming levels above $79,500. Of course, this upward trend developed completely independently of the TV host's actions.
History knows many examples where going against Cramer's advice was a profitable strategy. The case of the Tuttle Capital ETF fund, which was launched specifically against the host's forecasts, is telling. The product lost 15.7% during its existence, while the S&P 500 index rose by 25.4%, and it was closed in February 2024. A blind bet against the guru turned out to be just as unprofitable as following his recommendations.
It remains a mystery what Cramer's true position is. No confirmation of his transactions, no wallet data, no exact position sizes — only words on air. Over the past weeks, his statements have contradicted each other, so investors should rely on their own analysis rather than the opinion of a TV host.
My analysis: Such reversals are nothing more than media noise. For the market, fundamental factors such as inflows into spot ETFs and the Fed's macroeconomic policy are far more important. Treating Cramer as a sentiment indicator is a mistake, but his contradictory signals once again highlight the volatility and unpredictability of the current market phase.