The bitcoin price has the potential to be worth a lot — or it can tank to zero, says Bill Miller, the founder of Miller Value Partners in Baltimore, Maryland.

“I like bitcoin because it’s not correlated with [the stock market],” Miller told CNBC (video below). “It does have the potential to be worth a lot, and the potential to be worth zero.”

Invested $1 Billion in Bitcoin in 2017

Miller claims he’s a bitcoin observer, not a bull. But he has an interesting history with the flagship virtual currency. In December 2017, Miller made headlines in when he invested $1 billion of his firm’s assets in BTC at the height of the market.

Miller also invested 1% of his personal net worth (which is undisclosed) in bitcoin, as CCN.com reported. He has apparently scaled back his firm’s allocation to BTC in the wake of the prolonged bear market.

However, he calls the original cryptocurrency an “interesting technological experiment” that investors should not cavalierly dismiss.

Miller Value Partners CIO Bill Miller said he thinks bitcoin is an "interesting" opportunity for investors, but he's not bullish on the cryptocurrency because it has potential to be worth nothing. https://t.co/7guCWvZOYT pic.twitter.com/je0rbS8pop — CNBC (@CNBC) January 7, 2019

Miller: BTC Has No Correlation To Stock Market

Bill Miller said the one thing he likes about bitcoin is that its performance is uncorrelated to the broader stock market. This makes them a good investment during down markets, he said.

“Bitcoin basically has no statistical correlation with stocks or bonds, which makes it an excellent diversifier,” Miller reasoned.

Bitcoin peaked in December of last year. And the stock market peaked in January [2018]. It went down for four or five weeks, and then rallied through September 2018. All that time, bitcoin was going down, so the correlation there was negative.

‘Very Clear Pattern’ of Higher Lows

While some analysts agree that there’s some correlation between crypto and tech stocks, many say there’s a far smaller relationship between crypto and the general stock market.

Miller says if anything, bitcoin trends have preceded the stock market. He pointed out that the stock market weakened right after the bitcoin price started to drop.

Bitcoin peaked in December of last year, and the stock market peaked in January [2018]. It went down for four or five weeks, and then rallied through September 2018. All this time, bitcoin was going down, so the correlation there was negative. In the very short term, bitcoin tended to lead the [stock] market. Bitcoin bottomed 52 weeks after it peaked in December [2017]. And it started up again. The stock market didn’t bottom for another three to four weeks. Now the stock market is starting up. Who knows if that correlation will hold?

Despite the current Crypto Winter, Miller noted that there’s a “very clear pattern” of higher lows amid the constant price fluctuations.

“Take a look at the low for bitcoin each year since it came out 10 years ago,” Miller said. “By and large, there’s a very clear pattern of higher lows.”

Featured image from Shutterstock.