Jim Cramer missed a 23% monthly rise in Bitcoin price

Jim Cramer missed a 23% monthly rise in Bitcoin price

Bitcoin (BTC) price began bubbling upwards from $27,900 on Sunday, April 9th. It entered full rally territory on Monday and rose to $30,450 by Tuesday.

But most of Jim Cramer's viewers likely missed the opportunity to score a cool 23% gain when the CNBC "Mad Money" host told viewers to avoid Bitcoin on March 14.

Cramer does it again

Additionally, Cramer told CNBC observers that they should sell all the BTC they have:

"Bitcoin is up today. And I would argue now that it can't even be held in banks. Bitcoin is a strange beast. I'll say straight up: I think it's being manipulated. It's been manipulated all along by Sam Bankman-Fried. So please don't assume there isn't still manipulation going on. And I would sell my Bitcoin right into this rally. I mean, I had Bitcoin at one point believed. Not here, not now.”

As it turns out, the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed in the month since Jim Cramer told viewers to sell. On the day he expressed this opinion about the king's cryptocurrency, BTC closed at $24,746. Additionally, the cryptocurrency had just gained 22.58% in a four-day surge from $20,187 on March 10. That's why Cramer said he would sell straight into the rally.

All CNBC watchers who followed his advice and sold their BTC missed out on another 23% increase from the March 14 price. All because Jim Cramer said he believes it's being rigged. He had no real reason to believe that, at least not one that he shared with his audience.

Why Cramer's advice on BTC should be taken with caution

All Jim had to offer as an argument was, "It was manipulated by Sam Bankman-Fried the whole time." That's why, Cramer argued, it is sopossiblethat someone could still manipulate it. That's a pretty flimsy reason.

It's also a specious argument because it smears Bitcoin simply by associating it with Sam Bankman-Fried. But Cramer doesn't argue that Bankman-Fried is still manipulating prices. SBF is under house arrest and facing trial, and the crypto markets had already FTX-Alameda et al. through his January rally.

Also, in the first place, it would be more accurate to say that Bitcoin manipulated FTX upwards, not the other way around. Even as big as FTX became, it was never the deciding factor in Bitcoin price.

Meanwhile, Jim Cramer's own stock-picking record leaves much to be desired. An in-depth study of Cramer's stock picks by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found that Cramer's picks returned 4.08% annually over 17 years, while the S&P 500 Index gained 7.07%.

Anyone who took Cramer's advice on Bitcoin in January, when he called crypto a "sham" while BTC was trading at $20,688, missed out on a 46.8% gain.

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