Jim Cramer still owns ‘a lot’ of Ether he first bought for an NFT auction

In the latest sign that crypto continues to filter through into the mainstream, CNBC host Jim Cramer has spent the week discussing the large quantity of Ether (ETH) he holds.

On CNBC's Squawk Box on May 4, Cramer said he owns “a lot of Ether,” explaining that he first bought it when he was trying to “buy some nonfungible token on TIME magazine. So they made you buy Ether first. I didn't get it so I just kept the Ether.” 

Cramer was referring to TIME's recent auction of magazine covers in the form of nonfungible tokens when each cover eventually sold for between $100,000–$250,000.

Keeping the Ether, however, now “seems like a better deal,” his interviewer quipped, in light of Ether's current rally to trade above $3,300 — up 130% just this week. "I'll buy a house with Ether," Cramer half-joked in response.

Cramer's point about paying for real estate with his crypto profits is more than an off-the-cuff remark. The television host said last month that he had recently paid off a mortgage using proceeds from his Bitcoin (BTC) investments. 

Speaking in more detail about using Bitcoin for the down payment on his property in another interview earlier this week, Cramer presented himself neither as a purist HODLer nor as someone who carelessly sells it off:

“You don't have to stay in it. That's again this kind of straw man that what's going to happen is you buy Bitcoin, it goes up and then you lose everything. And what I'm saying is you buy Bitcoin, you take out what you can, [...] so you can buy something of great store of value historically and then you can let it run. [...] It's not a lottery ticket. Many, many people went along for the ride and I think they should sell some and then do something else with it and they can keep some running.” 

In what he presented as an approach to crypto that goes against certain “all-or-nothing” trading orthodoxies, Cramer added, “I don't get enjoyment from living in Bitcoin, but I did get great enjoyment from buying this place, stocking the pond, fishing, enjoying my family together.”