Ace investors and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger thrashed Bitcoin at the company's annual shareholder's meet on Saturday.
Buffet’s views
Buffet said, "If you told me to own all the Bitcoin in the world and offered it to me at $25, I wouldn't take it."
Buffet clarified that he would do so because he sees no value creation in holding Bitcoin. He explained that owning assets like real estate; farmland etc would generate income in the form of rent, crops, etc. But holding Bitcoin would not generate any such value. And the holder would only be profitable when he sells his holding to someone else at a higher price.
Munger’s take
Charlie Munger, Buffet’s longtime partner and Vice Chairman of his company took an, even more, harsher approach while explaining his views on Bitcoin.
He said, “In my life, I try to avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad and Bitcoin does all three.”
He again commended the Chinese on their tough stance on crypto. He said, “In the first place, it’s stupid because it’s still likely to go to zero. It’s evil because it undermines the Federal Reserve System…and third, it makes us look foolish compared to the Communist leader in China. He was smart enough to ban Bitcoin in China.”
Discontent with crypto
This is not the first time Buffet and Munger have criticised cryptocurrencies. Previously, Munger compared cryptocurrencies to ‘venereal diseases’ and that they are ‘beneath contempt.’
Buffet once called Bitcoin ‘rat poison’ and berated it for not creating and adding any real value to the society.
But are they hypocrites?
Berkshire Hathaway made a $1 billion investment in NuBank earlier this year. NuBank is Latin America's leading provider of digital financial services. While Nubank does not aggressively promote cryptocurrency trading, its platform called NuInvest enables clients to participate in a variety of crypto assets and Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).
Furthermore, the company is consistently disinvesting in traditional financial assets and institutions. Their recent SEC filing revealed that the company sold around $3 billion in Visa and Mastercard stock.
Also Read: Walk through the India Art Fair in the metaverse
Also Read: Goldman Sachs bullish on crypto