Bitcoin tokens are displayed in this picture illustration taken Dec. 8, 2017.BENOIT TESSIER/The Globe and Mail
Jeremy Grantham has joined the chorus of crypto-bears warning of a potential bubble in bitcoin, as the price of the digital token appears to stabilize after a wild few weeks.
The chief investment strategist for GMO in Boston described the bitcoin market as a "true, crazy mini-bubble" in a letter to investors this week. Grantham follows the likes of Warren Buffett and even bitcoin-bull Mike Novogratz in warning of a bubble in cryptocurrencies, which have exploded into the mainstream consciousness in the past few months.
"Having no clear fundamental value and largely unregulated markets, coupled with a storyline conducive to delusions of grandeur, makes this more than anything we can find in the history books the very essence of a bubble," the GMO letter said.
Read more in Bloomberg's round-up of bitcoin bulls and bears.
Bitcoin fell 3.8 percent to $14,478.51 as of 8:10 a.m. New York-time, having stabilized near $15,000 following a plunge in December.
The letter from GMO comes after Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch eschewed the virtual currency. The brokerage told employees last month not to offer clients Grayscale's Bitcoin Investment Trust, one of the few financial instruments directly holding the digital coin.