Mad Money's Jim Cramer Dumps His Bitcoin Over China Mining Crackdown and Ransomware Concerns

Mad Money host Jim Cramer said he has sold almost all of his bitcoin. He cited the Chinese government’s crackdown on bitcoin mining and concerns over bitcoin’s role in ransomware attacks.

Jim Cramer Worried About China’s Mining Crackdown and Ransomware, Sold Almost All His Bitcoin

The host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, Jim Cramer, revealed Monday that he has sold almost all of his bitcoin. A former hedge fund manager, Cramer co-founded Thestreet.com, a financial news and literacy website.

Citing the Chinese government’s bitcoin mining crackdown and the cryptocurrency’s role in ransomware attacks, Cramer said:

Sold almost all of my bitcoin. Don’t need it.

Cramer got into bitcoin towards the end of last year in fear of massive inflation. In March this year, he said gold let him down and advised people to sell gold and increase their bitcoin holdings. “If they listen to me, they’re going to drop half their gold. I’ve been saying 10% in gold since 1983. And now I say 5% in gold, 5% in bitcoin,” he said. However, about two months ago, the Mad Money host said that he sold some bitcoins to pay off his mortgage.

Bitcoin’s price slid on Monday to $31,602 at the time of writing based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets as the news of China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), ordering financial institutions to stop all crypto-related activities spread across the markets.

The Chinese government has also been closing down bitcoin mining farms in various areas in China. A report in the Chinese Communist Party-backed Global Times newspaper claims that more than 90% of the country’s mining capacity is shut down after authorities in Sichuan closed down many mining farms in the province.

Cramer opined:

When the PRC goes after something, they tend to have their way … It’s not a democracy. It’s a dictatorship. 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.

The Mad Money host has also voiced concerns about bitcoin’s role in ransomware attacks and how the U.S. government will handle the cryptocurrency in its efforts to fight ransomware attacks, such as the ones suffered by Colonial Pipeline and Brazil’s JBS. The Biden administration has made fighting ransomware attacks a priority and is reportedly expanding cryptocurrency analysis to identify criminal transactions.

Cramer noted, “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. I think they’re the first that almost shut down the East Coast,” elaborating:

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.’

With China cracking down on bitcoin mining and ransomware attacks, Cramer believes that bitcoin “is not going up because of structural reasons.”