Bill Miller isn't fazed by the bitcoin drop and says the volatility is 'pretty routine'

Published Wed, May 19 20213:08 PM EDT

Kevin Stankiewicz @in/kevin-stankiewicz-b5593466 @kevin_stank

Longtime bitcoin bull and big holder Bill Miller on Wednesday downplayed the cryptocurrency's recent wild trading action . "If I liked something at higher prices it is a safe bet I will like it even more at lower prices," Miller told CNBC's Kelly Evans in a statement. He added, however, that "I don't comment on normal fluctuations in stock or asset prices." "This bitcoin correction, while extreme if it happened to the equity market in such a short period, is right in line with moves we have seen many times in bitcoin," continued Miller, a famed value investor known for managing a fund while at Legg Mason that beat the S & P 500 for 15 consecutive years. "I came on your show in March of 2020 to comment on the market because that 4 week drop was historic. This one in bitcoin is pretty routine," Miller told CNBC. Bitcoin plunged more than 30% to $30,001.51 at its low point Wednesday, a level not seen since late January, according to Coin Metrics. It also represented a more than 50% decline in bitcoin's price from its all-time high above $64,000 in mid-April. However, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value recovered some of those losses later in the session Wednesday, eventually breaking above $40,000 apiece again . As of 3 p.m. in New York, bitcoin was down more than 12% to trade below $38,000 per token. Miller has owned bitcoin for years. In 2018, he told CNBC he began to buy the burgeoning digital asset around 2014 or 2015 at an average cost of $350 per coin. Bitcoin reached its all-time high in April around the time cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase went public in a blockbuster direct listing . Miller appeared on CNBC a few days later, shrugging off concerns that bitcoin was in a bubble. It traded around $55,800 at the time of those remarks. "With bitcoin, volatility is the price you pay for performance," Miller said April 20, adding that he believed more upside was eventually in store. "Supply [of bitcoin] is growing 2% a year and demand is growing faster. That's all you really need to know, and that means it's going higher," Miller said at the time. Bitcoin is up around 30% year to date and more than 320% in the past 12 months.

Bill Miller at Delivering Alpha 2015 in New York.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Longtime bitcoin bull and big holder Bill Miller on Wednesday downplayed the cryptocurrency's recent wild trading action.

"If I liked something at higher prices it is a safe bet I will like it even more at lower prices," Miller told CNBC's Kelly Evans in a statement. He added, however, that "I don't comment on normal fluctuations in stock or asset prices."