The man who was the real-life inspiration for the Wolf of Wall Street said on Friday that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is a 'huge scam'
'Promoters are perpetuating a massive scam of the highest order on everyone,' Jordan Belfort said on Friday
Belfort is a former stockbroker who ran a $100million boiler room stock manipulation scheme that landed him in prison
He wrote a memoir about his experiences, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was adapted into a movie by Martin Scorsese in 2013
Bitcoin blasted to another all-time high of almost $18,000 on the Bitstamp exchange on Friday
'Probably 85 percent of people out there don't have bad intentions but the problem is, if five or 10 percent are trying to scam you.'
Belfort thinks Bitcoin's value will rise in the short term before crashing.
'I think it's a huge danger right now that people are looking at this as the next great thing, it's a bubble for sure,' Belfort told CNN.
He compared Bitcoin to the 17th century 'tulip mania' in Holland, where the value of tulip bulbs skyrocketed before rapidly dropping.
'The next stage, you will see it really skyrocket, there will be a short squeeze, it will go even higher and then eventually it will come caving in, it's almost a guarantee,' Belfort said.
'If you were the most disciplined person and get in and get out there is probably a short window to make some money.
'But that's not human nature, people will get in and make some money and they want to make more money.
'In the tulip bubble the beginning of the end was when they started trading futures on tulips, that was another move up and then all of a sudden it collapses and it's over.'
Belfort isn't the only one predicting Bitcoin's demise.
