Investment advisor Ross Gerber has questioned Bitcoin’s real-world utility, arguing that gold remains easier to use in many places despite years of promises about cryptocurrency’s potential as a global payment and monetary system.
Gerber made the comments on X while responding to a discussion about Bitcoin’s use cases. He questioned what the crypto industry has actually built that provides meaningful value, pointing to stablecoins as an example while arguing that a monetary system has limited usefulness if it cannot be readily used in everyday transactions.
“Probably easier to use gold than bitcoin in most places still,” Gerber wrote, adding to his increasingly skeptical stance toward the largest cryptocurrency.
The investor has also raised concerns about the direction of the Bitcoin mining industry. He noted that several major Bitcoin miners are increasingly turning toward artificial intelligence infrastructure and selling computing capacity for AI workloads rather than focusing exclusively on cryptocurrency mining.
In Gerber’s view, GPUs have a more important role in powering artificial intelligence than in supporting blockchain networks, raising the possibility that Bitcoin’s strongest days could be behind it.
His latest criticism follows a series of increasingly negative comments about Bitcoin and Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor. On August 14, Gerber said Saylor’s aggressive advocacy for Bitcoin was making him less enthusiastic about the cryptocurrency.
Gerber has previously criticized Saylor over Strategy’s decision to sell Bitcoin. In April, he accused Saylor of undermining investor confidence after Strategy sold 32 BTC, worth roughly $2.5 million at the time. The sale was notable because it marked the company’s first Bitcoin disposal since late 2022, despite Saylor’s longstanding emphasis on holding the asset.
Strategy’s Bitcoin strategy has become increasingly complex as the company balances its Bitcoin exposure with the interests of common shareholders and holders of its preferred securities. The company has continued to use capital markets to finance its Bitcoin purchases while its stock has faced significant volatility.
Gerber, who has previously disclosed that he bought Bitcoin at around $400, has also pointed to his early investments in Tesla and Nvidia as examples of bets that generated substantial returns.
His latest remarks nevertheless suggest a growing disconnect between his earlier Bitcoin exposure and his current assessment of the cryptocurrency’s usefulness. Rather than focusing solely on Bitcoin’s price potential, Gerber is increasingly questioning whether its underlying economic utility justifies its status as a major financial asset.
For Gerber, the issue is ultimately practical: if gold remains easier to use in everyday settings and the computing infrastructure once associated primarily with Bitcoin mining is increasingly being redirected toward AI, the long-term investment case for Bitcoin may be less compelling than its advocates claim.
U.Today Editorial Team
Dan Burgin
