Michael Burry, Who Passed on Buying Bitcoin in 2013, Explains Why He Is Now Bearish on the Crypto Market

▲ Michael Burry’s Warning… The Collapse of Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Myth / ChatGPT-generated image ©

Michael Burry, widely known as the real-life protagonist of the film “The Big Short,” revealed that he missed an early investment opportunity in Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013, while issuing a chilling warning that the lack of fundamentals in the cryptocurrency market could ultimately trigger a fatal death spiral across the broader financial system.

According to investment media outlet Benzinga on February 23 (local time), Burry revisited major market predictions from the past 26 years on his social media account, stating that he had been introduced to an opportunity to purchase Bitcoin through an acquaintance in 2013 but did not act on it. He emphasized that his market insight remains valid, listing major successes such as shorting Amazon at its 2000 peak, buying Apple in 1998 and 2002, and making early investments in the South Korean stock market in 2003 and the Chinese stock market in 2004.

Drawing on his distinguished track record of forecasts, Burry strongly refuted the claim that Bitcoin can serve as a hedge against currency depreciation. He argued that Bitcoin is driven purely by speculation and lacks a solid real-economy foundation capable of defending against price declines. In particular, he assessed that compared to gold and silver, which have reached record highs amid geopolitical crises and concerns over the dollar, Bitcoin has completely failed as an inflation hedge.

He also warned that growing corporate adoption of cryptocurrencies cannot serve as a safeguard guaranteeing permanent demand. Burry explained that roughly 200 publicly listed companies holding large amounts of Bitcoin are subject to strict mark-to-market accounting on their financial statements, meaning that if prices continue to fall, they could be forced into massive sell-offs for risk management purposes. As traditional Wall Street institutions such as JPMorgan Chase expand the adoption of tokenized assets, he projected that such large-scale corporate selling could further intensify liquidity risks in the market.

Above all, Burry expressed his greatest concern over the possibility that a cryptocurrency market crash could spread to the tokenized real-asset market, triggering a chain reaction of collateral collapses. He estimated that amid crypto weakness, approximately $1 billion in forced liquidations has already occurred around the end of the month in tokenized gold and silver futures markets not backed by physical metals. If Bitcoin were to plunge to the $50,000 level, he presented a pessimistic scenario in which mining companies would face a wave of bankruptcies and the tokenized metals futures market would collapse into a massive black hole devoid of buyers.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for investment reference purposes only and we are not responsible for any investment losses incurred based on it. The content should be interpreted solely for informational purposes.