Jim Cramer bought bitcoin when it was worth $12,000 - and said he recently sold half his 'phony' portfolio to pay off a mortgage

• CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer used bitcoin profits to pay off a mortgage.
• He said he bought the digital asset when it was worth $12,000 - the level it was at in 2019.
• Cramer said spending bitcoin on a genuine use was like "phony money paying for real money."
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TV anchor Jim Cramer said he bought "a lot of" bitcoin when it was worth $12,000 and used some profits from his investment to pay off a home loan.

"I paid off a mortgage yesterday with it," the "Mad Money" host said Thursday on CNBC, adding that selling half his portfolio helped him.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of near $65,000 on Wednesday, and was last trading 4% lower around $60,600 on Friday. The digital asset's price is up more than 105% so far this year.

"From the chart, I may be the only natural seller. But it was so great to pay off a mortgage. It was like, kind of, phony money paying for real money," Cramer said.

"I now own a house - lock, stock and barrel - because I bought this currency."

Cramer recently indicated he is bullish on crypto exchange Coinbase, calling it one of many "cult-assets" in the market.

In a podcast with crypto investor Anthony Pompliano last month, Cramer said he made a ton of money thanks to investing in bitcoin, and that it gave him higher gains than gold. He said he followed Pompliano's advice and put half a million dollars into bitcoin over the course of a few days.

The TV anchor and former hedge fund manager has previously said companies are being negligent if they don't consider adding bitcoin to their balance sheets.

"As far as a way to be able to have a pastiche of things to do with your cash, I'm all for it," he told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. "I think it's almost irresponsible not to include it. Every treasurer should be going to boards of directors and saying should we put a small portion of our cash in bitcoin."

Read more: Bitcoin is a headache to store, and that's created an investment opportunity that could theoretically pay determined traders big risk-free returns by December