Burry, Grantham Warned About Stocks, Economy Now ‘trumpcession’ Looms

Burry’s Scion Asset Management discloses massive put options against QQQ and SPY in SEC filing. Timing the market remains a risky strategy. Burry suggests a market downturn could be widespread.

What This Means For Investors

For Bitcoin to reach Burry’s $50,000 target, it would need to fall an additional 25% from current levels. The chart reveals a descending price channel that has been driving the cryptocurrency lower since its all-time high near $126,000. Bitcoin is currently trading at $67,274, down 8.15% in the last 24 hours. Burry posted on X a comparative chart with the simple message “$BTC Patterns,” where he draws structural similarities between the current drop—from $126,000 to $70,000—and the previous brutal plunge that took Bitcoin from $35,000 to below $20,000.

Will Bitcoin’s Decline Trigger Ripple Effects? Here’s What The Big Short’s Michael Burry Says

Bill Gross, the billionaire investor dubbed the "Bond King," told smartytrade reviews Business Insider this week that President Donald Trump’s "destructive" tariffs threatened to choke growth and reignite inflation. The "Wizard of Wharton" and author of "Stocks for the Long Run" said that grim first-quarter growth forecasts partly reflected businesses stockpiling before tariffs take effect, as imports subtract from GDP. Every time Theron publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox! According to Precedence Research, the market size is expected to rise to over $850 billion in 2034 from $146 billion in 2024. The U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to explode despite the rising chatter of a bubble. Given expectations that the current Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, will be replaced by a more dovish leader, either Kevin Warsh or Kevin Hassett, rates could become more accommodative than currently foreseen.

Could Passive Investing Make The Next Crash Worse?

Pointing towards the end-of-January dip in gold and silver prices, he added, "It looks like up to $1 billion in precious metals were liquidated at the month’s very end as a result of falling crypto prices." On Wednesday, the price slumped to $71,739 in New York, and the token is down nearly 17% in 2026, with the broader crypto market losing over $460 billion in value the previous week. Burry believes the recent drop in the largest and most popular cryptocurrency could have ripple effects across markets, particularly in gold and silver. Burry’s Scion also reveals long positions in companies such as Stellantis, Discovery, Expedia, CVS, MGM Resorts, Iheartmedia, and Cigna.

‘beary’ Michael Burry Waves The Red Flag Again — But These 5 Charts Suggest The Market Isn’t Crashing Yet

Technical indicators show a bearish trend firmly established, with multiple short signals activated across different timeframes. Beyond that, an additional drop toward $50,000 would not only devastate miners—many operate with tight margins that wouldn’t survive those prices—but would trigger cascading effects that could contaminate other markets. Burry himself has admitted to errors, such as the 2023 “Sell,” and pivoted to new fights, including AI shorts in Palantir and Nvidia in 2025, using put options. Yet, each time, markets defied his script, powered by innovation, liquidity, and human optimism.

• He is fascinated by trading and market analysis.
• “My last Big Short got bigger and bigger and BIGGER too,” he posted, drawing parallels to his housing bet while insisting the EV maker’s valuation would “implode soon.”
• For Bitcoin to reach Burry’s $50,000 target, it would need to fall an additional 25% from current levels.
• While a crash isn’t imminent, investors ignoring his warnings risk exposure to overvalued tech and geopolitical landmines.
• Bitcoin is currently trading at $67,274, down 8.15% in the last 24 hours.

What his positioning does suggest is that serious investors with proven analytical capabilities see meaningful downside risk in AI valuations at current levels. His track record demands attention, but timing market corrections is notoriously difficult even for the most skilled investors. Many internet companies that failed during that crash were working on legitimate business models, but their stock prices had run too far ahead of reality. Put options give the holder the right to sell shares at a predetermined price, making them profitable when stock prices decline.

Are Ai And Tech Stocks Creating A Dangerous Bubble?

• The famous investor wrote that Bitcoin had dropped around 40 percent in value since the October peak and had even worse words for the possibility that the price might plunge even further.
• Burry has closed his hedge fund and taken bearish positions personally.
• Burry believes the recent drop in the largest and most popular cryptocurrency could have ripple effects across markets, particularly in gold and silver.
• Investors with a 10-, 20-, or 30-year investing horizon ahead of them don’t necessarily need to take any action, as history suggests that the longer one holds stocks, the more likely they are to generate solid returns.

Michael Burry, Jeremy Grantham, and other market commentators have for years been warning that stocks will crash and the economy will crater. The investor who saw the housing crash coming is now warning about AI—and prudent investors would be wise to understand at least why. The enthusiasm around AI has created an environment where investors have been willing to pay premium prices based on future growth expectations rather than current fundamentals. One of the investors from The Big Short has been warning of the consequences if the value of Bitcoin drops below $70,000, as prices have plummeted massively since they hit a peak late last year. While a crash isn’t imminent, investors ignoring his warnings risk exposure to overvalued tech and geopolitical landmines. One option is to shift funds to a more conservative investment strategy, such as investing in an equal-weighted ETF following the S&P 500 index, which removes the weighting of stocks in the S&P 500 and therefore has less exposure to the high-flying AI companies.

• Investors who own individual stocks may also want to look carefully at valuations, as Burry actually suggested.
• This factor could lead to sector rotation out of current market leaders and into laggards such as small-caps and interest-rate-sensitive stocks.
• He liquidated nearly all Scion’s positions, holding just one stock, and tweeted warnings of retail-driven losses on a country-sized scale.
• When Burry makes a significant move, especially one as concentrated as his current positioning, institutional investors and retail traders alike take notice.
• His warnings—rooted in leverage, speculation, and policy risks—often nailed the vulnerabilities, from inflation’s surge to crypto’s winter.
• The broader implication is that market participants should carefully evaluate their exposure to AI-related investments and consider whether current valuations adequately reflect potential risks.

However, there are other astute investors who disagree with Burry, and ultimately, retail investors are very unlikely to correctly time the market. Historical data show that the market has consistently generated solid long-term returns and that investing in stocks is less risky when held for the long term. And so the problem is, in the United States, I think when the market goes down, it’s not like in 2000, where there was this other bunch of stocks that were being ignored, and they’ll come up even if the Nasdaq crashes. Active investing refers to the process of conducting thorough research and frequently buying and selling stocks to outperform the market and generate alpha, as there are inefficiencies to capitalize on. Michael Burry became one of the few investors to make bets against the housing market before it collapsed during the Great Recession. Other market whizzes, including the hedge fund manager David Einhorn and the "Black Swan" investor Mark Spitznagel, have called out epic levels of speculation among investors and cautioned that they’re marching toward disaster.

Passive Investing And Etfs Could Amplify Market Downturn

Burry’s strategy hinges on put options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), with a notional value of $886 million and $739 million, respectively. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool’s premium services. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. Burry, whose lucrative wager against the mid-2000s US housing bubble was immortalized in the film "The Big Short," is known for making dire predictions and betting against popular assets such as Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, and the S&P 500. The Rosenberg Research president, who in 2007 was labeled the "skunk at the picnic" and "class clown" for predicting a recession that arrived soon after, said to any investor adding risk to their portfolio, "You really need to have your head examined."

• Robinhood’s stock had debuted at $38 in July 2020; by February 2021, it was trading around $50, despite volatility.
• Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
• Over half of U.S. equities are in passive funds, leaving few active investors to stabilize the market.
• Many internet companies that failed during that crash were working on legitimate business models, but their stock prices had run too far ahead of reality.

The Stock Markets Ultimate Line In The Sand

The Scion Asset Management chief sounded the alarm in 2021 on the "greatest speculative bubble of all time in all things" and declared that buyers of meme stocks and cryptocurrencies were barreling toward the "mother of all crashes." He said that, while the overall stock market could head higher, a rotation out of riskier, pricier stocks like Nvidia and into defensive stocks was "more likely now than any other time over the past couple of years." This factor could lead to sector rotation out of current market leaders and into laggards such as small-caps and interest-rate-sensitive stocks.

“This will not happen again,” he implied in deleted posts, warning of repercussions for retail traders. As the GameStop mania gripped markets in late January 2021, Burry, who had built a massive long position in the retailer back in 2019, took a contrarian turn. Yet Tesla reached an all-time high above $1,200, split-adjusted, up another 50% from its December close. Burry’s position, now public knowledge, faced intense scrutiny, with short sellers collectively losing billions. At the time, Tesla shares were still doubling every few months, propelled by inclusion in the S&P 500 and record deliveries. “My last Big Short got bigger and bigger and BIGGER too,” he posted, drawing parallels to his housing bet while insisting the EV maker’s valuation would “implode soon.”