‘It Could Go Up a 5 Trillion Percent and It Could Go to Zero’: Ramsey Show Host to Wife Whose Husband Won’t Sell Bitcoin to Pay Off House
Sarah from Sacramento knows her husband's bitcoin could pay off their mortgage, but he refuses to sell and she has no idea what he paid for it. What Ramsey host John Delony told her cuts straight to the tension every…
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John Delony owns no Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC). On the October 5, 2026 episode of The Ramsey Show, the co-host lumped it in with beanie babies and NFTs as things he passed on. Then he summed up crypto in one line: “It could go up a 5 trillion percent and it could go to zero.”
The caller was Sarah from Sacramento. She said her husband holds enough bitcoin to pay off their mortgage “plus some.” He won’t sell because he wants it to grow first, so he has to sell less. She doesn’t know what he paid for it. They also make no extra principal payments, and she said paying off the house at their current pace would take “a long time.”
Here is what’s riding on his choice. The couple has about $600,000 in crypto, $5,000 in cash and $20,000 in car debt. Outside of Sarah’s pension, they have no other retirement savings. One volatile asset will decide whether this family ends up owning its home.
One Year of Waiting Has Already Cost This Family
Delony is right, and the husband has the math backwards. Bitcoin trades around $86,000. That’s 30% below where it was a year ago and about flat for 2026. Waiting so you can sell fewer coins only pays off if the price rises. Over the past full year, it fell.
If their holdings are worth $600,000 today, those same coins were worth about $859,000 a year ago. That gap is what the wait has cost so far. Getting back there would take a gain of about 43%.
The falls along the way were sharper still. In late June, bitcoin hit $58,000. At that price, today’s $600,000 would have been worth about $403,000. Say the mortgage is $400,000 (Sarah didn’t give the balance, so this is an example). In that case, the “plus some” nearly disappeared within a few months.
Paying off the loan works like a guaranteed return equal to the mortgage rate. On a $400,000 balance at an example 6.5% rate, that comes to about $26,000 a year in interest the couple would stop paying. Bitcoin promises nothing like that. Delony’s point was that it produces no revenue or services, so it must eventually be traded for actual money.
The husband does have evidence on his side. Bitcoin is up 34% over the past 60 days and up 56% over five years. Yet most of that 60-day jump only recovered ground lost earlier in the year. Selling enough to clear the mortgage would lock in a paid-off house at today’s price, whatever happens next.
Cost Basis Decides What Selling Really Costs
The husband points to tax concerns. That makes his cost basis (what he originally paid) the number that matters most. Coins held longer than a year are taxed at long-term capital gains rates of 0%, 15% or 20%. Coins held a year or less are taxed as ordinary income.
Say his total basis is $200,000 and he sells $400,000 of the holdings, all held long-term. At the 15% rate, the tax comes to about $40,000. If he bought near recent highs instead, his gain could be close to zero. Some coins might even be at a loss that offsets other gains.
Compare either tax bill to what the market already did. If $400,000 of bitcoin drops 30%, it’s worth about $279,000. Under realistic assumptions, the tax is a small price for protection against that kind of falls.
What This Family Needs to Know Before Bitcoin’s Next Swing
- Get the cost basis in writing. Download the full transaction history from each exchange or wallet. Sort the purchases by date and price. Until you have this number, you can’t calculate the tax, and the tax worry is just a guess.
- Find the price that wipes out the margin. Divide the mortgage balance by the current value of the holdings. With $600,000 covering a $400,000 loan, a falls of about 33% wipes out the margin. Bitcoin fell almost that much over the past year.
- The cash gap is the most urgent issue. Keeping $5,000 in savings while owing $20,000 on a car leaves no room for a job loss or a repair. Selling enough to pay off the car and set aside three to six months of expenses costs relatively little and removes the most immediate risk.
- A partial sale is one middle path. Selling enough to pay off the mortgage would keep the “plus some” invested. The husband keeps his upside, and the house no longer depends on the price.
The longer a paid-off house depends on bitcoin’s price, the more one bad year can push that payoff out of reach.
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Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
