Dave Ramsey Called Bitcoin 'Wacko' In 2014—That $1,000 'Bad Investment' Is Worth Over $148K Today

Dave Ramsey, the financial expert recognized for his strong stance against credit cards, in February 2014 shared his critical perspective on Bitcoin.

He called it “wacko,” likened it to gravel, and flat-out dismissed it as a fad for “computer nerds.” Bitcoin was trading at a modest $593.10 at the time, according to Bankrate. Fast-forward to 2025, and that same $1,000 investment would be worth more than $148,500. 

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A Classic ‘Boomer vs. Bitcoin' Moment

Ramsey’s 2014 rant, which resurfaced on social media, aged like milk. He didn’t just warn against Bitcoin—he tore into it. He said, "What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a currency on the internet. It has no value except to the extent someone else will take it from you as value. So Bitcoin is the Iraqi dinar of the internet." 

But here’s the thing: history is filled with experts laughing off disruptive innovations. In a 2007 video interview, then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone, saying, “It doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.”

Ramsey wasn’t alone in his skepticism. Around the same time, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon labeled Bitcoin a “fraud” in a CNBC interview in January 2023. Yet today, JPMorgan is actively involved in blockchain technology. Even the U.S. government, once wary of Bitcoin, now holds seized cryptocurrency assets. 

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March 6 to create a strategic bitcoin reserve. White House Crypto Czar David Sacks, later posted on X, “It is estimated that the U.S. government owns about 200,000 bitcoin.”

Despite Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, experts remain divided.On the "Capitalisn't" podcast, Nobel laureate economist Eugene Fama has expressed concerns about Bitcoin’s long-term viability, arguing that it lacks intrinsic value and could become worthless within a decade due to its volatility and speculative nature.

On the flip side, venture capitalist Tim Draper, who bought Bitcoin at around $600 in 2014, has repeatedly predicted it will hit $250,000, according to The Motley Fool. Meanwhile, investment firms like BlackRock, which once ignored crypto, are now launching Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Out of the 740 ETFs launched in 2024, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust emerged as the top performer, collecting over $53 billion in assets within a year, according to DL News.

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While Ramsey has softened his stance—now calling Bitcoin a “speculative investment”—he hasn’t exactly embraced it. But numbers don’t lie. A $1,000 Bitcoin investment in 2014 would now be worth $148,500. A modest $100 would have ballooned to over $14,800.

This isn’t the first time financial elites have underestimated innovation. When Warren Buffett dismissed Amazon in the late 1990s, calling it “too risky.” He later admitted at the 2017 Berkshire meeting, “I was too dumb to realize. I did not think Jeff Bezos could succeed on the scale he has.”

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