From calling bitcoin¡¯ rat poison¡¯ to investing $1 billion in a ¡®crypto friendly¡¯ bank, it's all a part of Warren Buffett¡¯s hide-and-seek saga with cryptocurrency.?
While Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have steadily been gaining acceptance across the globe, the 91-year-old billionaire and ace investor Warren Buffett seems to have stuck to his sceptical stance on Bitcoin.
Last weekend, at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder meeting Saturday, Buffett said that bitcoin is not a productive asset and it doesn¡¯t produce anything tangible.
¡°Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don¡¯t know. But the one thing I¡¯m pretty sure of is that it doesn¡¯t produce anything,¡± Buffett said. ¡°It¡¯s got a magic to it and people have attached magics to lots of things.¡±
The billionaire elaborated on why he doesn¡¯t see value in bitcoin, comparing it to things that generate other types of value.
¡°If you said¡ for a 1% interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25 billion, I¡¯ll write you a check this afternoon,¡± Buffett said, as per a?CNBC report.
¡±[For] $25 billion I now own 1% of the farmland. [If] you offer me 1% of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another $25 billion, I¡¯ll write you a check, it¡¯s very simple. Now if you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn¡¯t take it because what would I do with it? I¡¯d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn¡¯t going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food.¡±
Buffett added¡° Assets, to have value, have to deliver something to somebody. And there¡¯s only one currency that¡¯s accepted. You can come up with all kinds of things ¡ª we can put up Berkshire coins... but in the end, this is money,¡± he said, holding up a $20 bill. ¡°And there¡¯s no reason in the world why the United States government¡ is going to let Berkshire money replace theirs.¡±
And it's not only Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett who has been vocal about his anti-bitcoin beliefs and stance.?
98-year-old Charlie Munger, who is the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and described by Buffett as his closest partner, has often made hostile comments toward bitcoin in the past.?
In the Berkshire meeting last Saturday, Munger said ¡°In my life, I try and avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad in comparison to somebody else šC and bitcoin does all three.¡±?
¡°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.¡±
Also Read:?Big Four Ask Employees To Disclose This Year's Crypto Investments
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