Legendary investor Bill Miller: Sold some Bitcoin, still bullish in the long run

Bill Miller, a legendary hedge fund manager and investor and former chairman of Legg Mason Capital Management, told CNBC that he had sold some Bitcoin to cover margin calls. Bitcoin is highly correlated with traditional markets, and all cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum , are under pressure.

Miller also mentioned that he would not be surprised if the price of Bitcoin fell by half from its current levels, but remains bullish in the long run.

He noted that when times get tough, people want to sell highly liquid assets. Bitcoin fits that bill. A margin call occurs when the value of an investor's margin account falls below the amount required by the broker.

Miller said, “I hold Bitcoin as a hedge against financial disaster… I have yet to hear a good reason why anyone shouldn’t have at least 1% of their liquid net worth in Bitcoin.”

However, he seemed to sidestep the question of whether Bitcoin is worth buying at $28,000. The cryptocurrency market has been negatively impacted by the collapse of Terra , one of the leading smart contract projects. Earlier today, Bitcoin plunged to the $25,000 level but has now stabilized at $28,000.

He no longer considers himself just a "Bitcoin observer" but a bull, and he sees Bitcoin as an "insurance policy against financial disasters" and an investment tool that surpasses gold. In January of this year, Miller revealed that he had allocated 50% of his personal net worth to Bitcoin and invested in stocks of major encryption companies such as MicroStrategy and Stronghold Digital Mining .

Miller said he bought his first Bitcoin in 2014 when BTC was trading at around $200, then "accumulated a little bit" when Bitcoin was trading at $500, and then did not continue to buy in the years until BTC plummeted to $30,000 after reaching about $66,000 in April 2021. He said: "This time I started buying it again at $30,000, below $66,000, on the grounds that more people are using it and there is more money in the venture capital community." But Miller recommends that individual investors put 1% of their assets into Bitcoin.

In an interview with Forbes, Bill Miller said that Bitcoin has the characteristics of a luxury sports car Ferrari. On the contrary, precious metals such as gold represent the old times or "horse carriages."