Dave Ramsey compares crypto craze to toilet paper originally appeared on TheStreet .
Dave Ramsey has never been a fan of crypto.
The personal finance author and host of The Ramsey Show has spent years telling millions of Americans that Bitcoin and other digital currencies are speculative, volatile, and nowhere near a smart investment.
Dave Ramsey thinks Bitcoin is a joke
Ramsey has consistently categorized Bitcoin and other digital currencies as speculation, not investment. To him, buying crypto is no different than gambling on red at a Las Vegas roulette table or trading Beanie Babies during the 1990s.
On a July 29 episode of The Ramsey Show, personal finance guru Dave Ramsey revealed an unusual story.
A wealthy friend of his deliberately put $10,000 into cryptocurrency for one reason only: to get a rise out of him.
Related: What is Crypto? Cryptocurrency explained
"And I'm like, you're an idiot," Ramsey said with a poker face. "He wanted me to call him an idiot and I did."
Ramsey explained that his friend—worth "a bazillion dollars"—didn't need the money and made the investment purely to poke fun at his long-standing anti-crypto stance. But Ramsey was quick to stress he would have called him an idiot even if he had only talked about investing in crypto.
"There is no currency, regardless of how legitimate, that is a valid investment," Ramsey said. "Bitcoin is speculation. You're gambling, not investing."
Dave Ramsey calls Bitcoin flawed
He compared it to buying the euro or the yen because "your golfing buddy said it was a good idea," calling the logic deeply flawed.
At the core of Ramsey's critique is volatility.
"Chart the volatility of Bitcoin, and then smile at me with a serious face and tell me this is a solid investment," he said. "And I'll tell you you're smoking crack."
Ramsey acknowledged that Bitcoin might be "here to stay" and could evolve into a legitimate payment system someday. But in his view, it has not yet demonstrated the stability required of a reliable currency.
"It's like riding the worst roller coaster that went off the rails at Six Flags," he joked.
Dave Ramsey compares crypto to toilet paper
Ramsey often compares Bitcoin to commodities like gold , silver, or even pandemic-era shortages.
"Commodities go up or down based on shortage or oversupply, caused by greed or fear," he explained.
He lumped Bitcoin alongside Beanie Babies, Pokémon cards, and even toilet paper during COVID-19, all of which spiked in price due to scarcity and hype, only to collapse later.
When Ramsey wants to make a point about hype-driven investing, he reaches for a shelf full of historical oddities.
"There's no scarcity," he said. "When the Beanie Babies were going through the roof and people were paying $1,000 for a Princess Di, buying it off each other on the bet that it was going to go on up, is because they actually thought it's going to go on up. It was shortage of shortage."
Bitcoin, in his view, follows that same herd mentality: frenzied buyers chasing perceived scarcity, often with little understanding of the actual fundamentals.
Ramsey likened the crypto craze to the panic buying that unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Toilet paper during COVID. Remember that? Yeah, people were selling that stuff on eBay," he recalled with a laugh.
And it didn't stop there.
"Plexiglass, don't you remember the time you actually were in the plexiglass?" Ramsey asked. "Man, I wish I was in the mask business and the plexiglass business at one point."
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $116,520 on Kraken, down about 1.2% in the past 24 hours but still up nearly 95% compared to a year ago. The cryptocurrency has recently been swinging between $114,700 and $124,000.
Dave Ramsey compares crypto craze to toilet paper first appeared on TheStreet on Aug 18, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
