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On Sunday, Michael Burry used an X post to lay out what he described as 26 years of major market calls. That self-audit arrives as Bitcoin lacks utility remains central to his current framework, with Burry arguing the token has not proven durable as a hedge against currency debasement.
In the post, Burry shared about his missed opportunity with crypto, writing that he considered buying Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in 2013 after meeting a friend at Lightspeed but did not follow through.
Burry also shared that he was short Amazon.com at the top in 2000, then flipped to a heavy small-cap value stance later that year. He also wrote that he bought Apple in 1998 and again in 2002, and that he moved into Korea stocks in 2003 and China stocks in 2004 ahead of large runs.
Well, I have called just about everything significant that has happened the last 26 years.
It's hard to say I've never had the timing right.
I was short Amazon at the top in 2000.
I went way long small cap value in late 2000.
I bought AAPL in 1998 and then again in 2002.
In…
Against that history of directional bets, Burry's bitcoin critique focuses less on price charts and more on what he sees as a missing anchor for long-term demand. He has argued bitcoin is driven by speculation and lacks a stable, real-economy purpose that would reliably put a floor under declines.
He also pushed back on the common comparison between bitcoin's fixed supply and gold, saying the token has not behaved like a debasement hedge. In the same line of thinking, he contrasted bitcoin's performance with gold and silver pushing to record highs during periods of geopolitical stress and dollar worries.
Burry warned that corporate adoption does not guarantee permanence, pointing to roughly 200 public companies that hold bitcoin and the need to mark those positions to market in financial statements. He said risk controls could force selling if prices keep sliding.
This warning about bitcoin aligns with Michael Burry’s exploration into tokenization, a trend he is eager to learn more about, as he noted in a post earlier this year. Burry highlighted the growing adoption of tokenized assets by Wall Street, with major players like JPMorgan Chase & Co. leveraging this technology to enhance client services through products like the JPM Coin.
His interest in tokenization reflects a broader industry shift toward integrating digital assets, which may impact perceptions of cryptocurrencies as reliable hedges. This evolving landscape underscores the need for investors to consider the implications of corporate adoption and market dynamics, especially as Burry cautions against viewing bitcoin as a stable investment.
Burry tied crypto drawdowns to stress in adjacent markets, arguing bitcoin's decline contributed to a sharp pullback in gold and silver through forced de-risking. He said traders and corporate treasurers sold profitable exposure in tokenized gold and silver futures, while noting those products are not backed by physical metal.
He described a potential "a collateral death spiral" dynamic in tokenized metals, and estimated up to $1 billion of metals liquidation around month-end linked to crypto weakness. He also outlined a scenario where bitcoin at $50,000 would push miners into bankruptcy while tokenized metals futures "collapse into a black hole with no buyer."
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