This bitcoin fund just went up over 1,000%. Beware

And don’t forget things like Celsius Network, ThornChain, Ocean Protocol and ThetaToken. They’re all up around 1,000% this year.

Seriously, you were hoping to retire with bitcoin in your IRA? It’s only, like, the 37^th best cryptocurrency of 2021. Even Ethereum
ETHUSD,
+7.10%
is up twice as much, 400%.

Ditto the “OMG Network.” Ticker: OMG.

I’m not making this up.

According to CoinCodex.com, the world’s cryptocurrencies now boast a total “value“ — meaning price — of $639 billion.

Even more than Tesla 
TSLA,
+1.16%,
if you can imagine. About three times as much as Pfizer 
PFE,
+0.90%.
 Hmmm, which would I rather own? A third of the world’s cryptocurrencies, or all the stock in Pfizer?

Crypto is a great, great short term trade. The momentum is crazy. And because no one can actually value this stuff, no one can say when it’s too high.

There’s no point debating the “investment case” for bitcoin because it is unknowable. Ditto the “value.” What we have now is the classic speculative mania, straight out of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds.

Among the bubble stocks during the South Sea mania, wrote financial historian Charles Mackay, was a company ”For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage; but nobody to know what it is.”

And if you don’t believe me, look no further than the stampede into the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTC: BITW), a statutory trust, much like a closed-end fund, that just became freely tradable this month.

It’s a clever new fund. It gives you exposure to the 10 “biggest” cryptocurrencies with a single click of a mouse (though it is dominated by bitcoin). You can own it in your IRA, saving on all the taxes and paperwork. And you can buy it through your regular broker. No setting up “wallets” and apps and trying to keep track of various digital “keys.” (I think I still own some “Ethereum” somewhere. Heaven knows where.)

The price skyrocketed from $12 at the start of the month to $140 on Wednesday, before plunging to $90 Thursday. The fund was valued at the peak, theoretically, at $1.2 billion.

There’s just one problem. It’s 85% air. No, really. The actual underlying assets of the fund are just $170 million, or about $20 a share. The remaining price rise is pure speculation, with nothing underpinning it.

In other words: “ether,” not Ethereum.

“As of 3:12 p.m. ET, the fund is trading at $136…