Bitcoin is still trading above $90,000, hovering around the $91,000 mark on 19 November, but the mood around it is anything but euphoric. Over the past week, the price has dropped by roughly 12% and is down close to 30% from its October peak above $125,000. What looks like strength at first glance is starting to feel more like a fragile balance.
That is exactly the tension Jim Cramer tapped into in his latest post on X. On 19 November, he wrote from his official account:
“Almost feels like a cabal is trying to keep Bitcoin above $90,000. I like Bitcoin but I do not like any of the derivatives created to play it or game it or mine it.”
The line is classic Cramer: part suspicion, part warning, and partly a backhanded compliment to Bitcoin itself. He is not attacking the asset outright. Instead, he is questioning the machinery around it.
Cramer weighs in amid Bitcoin uncertainty
Cramer’s comment lands at a moment when the backdrop has clearly turned bearish. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $90,000 for the first time in months, wiping out its gains for 2025 before bouncing back above that psychological level.
At the same time, crypto ETFs tied to Bitcoin have seen billions in outflows in November, with some of the largest spot products logging record redemption days. That combination of price weakness and institutional money heading for the exit has pulled overall crypto market capitalization down by more than a trillion dollars compared with early autumn.
So when Cramer talks about a “cabal” trying to keep Bitcoin above $90,000, he is effectively pointing to the disconnect between the headline price and the underlying tone of the market. Bitcoin is still expensive on an absolute basis, yet sentiment is slipping, liquidity is thinner, and the bulk of recent flows have been out, not in.
Cramer’s second line in the post is just as important as the first. He says he likes Bitcoin, but not “any of the derivatives created to play it or game it or mine it.” In other words, he is drawing a distinction between owning BTC outright and speculating around it through futures, leveraged products, complex ETFs, or mining-linked vehicles. That is where a lot of the current stress is showing up. Futures flows have tilted in favour of bears, and leveraged positioning has been unwinding as price has drifted lower.
At the same time, Bitcoin ETFs that were once celebrated as the gateway for institutional capital are now seeing sustained daily outflows, a sign that the “strong hands” narrative is not holding up as neatly as it did on the way up.
