Key Takeaways
- Jason Calacanis predicts bitcoin will revisit $57,000 within 12 months, a potential 28% decline.
- Calacanis argues that AI offers greater investment potential than bitcoin’s store-of-value model.
- Calacanis previously predicted bitcoin’s collapse but later acknowledged the network’s resilience.
Calacanis Calls for Bitcoin Investors to Sell
On Tuesday, Calacanis, an early technology investor and co-host of the All-In podcast, published a blistering assessment of bitcoin’s prospects on X, arguing that the cryptocurrency’s investment appeal is deteriorating as artificial intelligence (AI) presents more compelling opportunities.
“A brutal year for bitcoin is just getting started,” Calacanis wrote, before adding, “Give me three minutes to explain why you should dump it now.”
His forecast centers on continued selling pressure from U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which he considers an early warning of declining institutional appetite. “Outflows from ETFs are signal and will continue,” he asserted. “We will test the $57K low again in the next 12 months.”
Bitcoin traded at prices between $79,600 to $80,000 when he published the remarks, placing his $57,000 target approximately 28% below prevailing prices. Recent ETF activity offered a mixed picture, with roughly $774 million departing over two trading sessions late last week before approximately $110 million returned Monday.
AI Challenges Bitcoin’s Investment Appeal
Calacanis contends that bitcoin’s greatest competitive disadvantage is its limited productive utility compared with emerging technologies. “Why put your resources into a dead network that offers nothing beyond a store of value?” he asked. His argument extends beyond conventional valuation concerns. Calacanis believes bitcoin has lost the viral enthusiasm that once encouraged investors to participate, while AI has captured the technological imagination and investment capital previously directed toward cryptocurrency speculation.
“Just sell and shift from bitcoin to Super Intelligence because one provides little to no value, and the other provides unlimited upside for humanity,” he argued. The investor also disclosed that he remains long Bittensor’s TAO token, reflecting his preference for projects associated with AI and computational services rather than bitcoin’s monetary proposition.
Bitcoiners Bite Back
Numerous bitcoin advocates challenged the technology investor’s remarks, which coincidentally followed a similarly pessimistic assessment from fellow All-In podcast co-host Chamath Palihapitiya. Palihapitiya contends that bitcoin will eventually become worthless, predicting that advances in artificial intelligence will ultimately enable AI to compromise Bitcoin’s underlying software.
“AI creates abundance,” Strategy founder Michael Saylor said to Calacanis on the social media platform. “Bitcoin enforces scarcity. One expands humanity’s ability to create value. The other lets us preserve and transfer it across time and space. Digital Intelligence and Digital Capital are complementary, Jason. The world needs both,” Saylor insisted.
Others questioned the tech investor’s past predictions. “Is this you too from 2018 when bitcoin was worth $5,500?” BTC proponent Dan Held replied. “If we had [listened] to you we would have missed out on a 14x return.”
A Long History of Bitcoin Skepticism
Calacanis isn’t a newcomer to bitcoin pessimism. His skepticism stretches back nearly a decade, despite disclosures that he acquired substantial bitcoin holdings at prices between $100 and $200. In 2018, he assigned bitcoin a substantial probability of collapsing to zero. By May 2019, he predicted the cryptocurrency would eventually trade between zero and $500, arguing that superior technology would displace it.
Those predictions never materialized. In late 2024, Calacanis acknowledged bitcoin’s resilience, describing it as too big to fail while reducing his estimated probability of complete failure to less than 5%. His latest declaration goes considerably further than questioning bitcoin’s utility.
“Bitcoin will never break its all-time high again,” he concluded on Tuesday.
For an investor who once acknowledged holding bitcoin through years of skepticism, the unresolved question is whether his latest forecast marks another premature obituary or a genuine turning point in the cryptocurrency’s investment narrative. To many observers, he’s just a different version of the constant bitcoin critic, Peter Schiff.
