Key Takeaways:
- Warren Buffett believes Bitcoin doesn’t produce anything of value.
- His new comments on crypto were made while attending Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder on Saturday
- In the past, Buffet has described bitcoin as rat poison squared
Despite Bitcoin gaining steady acceptance from the traditional finance and investment world in recent years, Warren Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has only viewed Bitcoin with suspicion. While attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder meeting on Saturday(30th April), Buffet said that it’s not a productive asset and it also doesn’t produce anything tangible.
While comparing bitcoin to an insurance company pitching itself as a technological marvel, the business tycoon said, “It’s got a magic to it, but people have attached magic to lots of things.” The American Business magnate further reinstated his view that bitcoin isn’t worth anything because it doesn’t produce anything, and further holders rely on somebody else being willing to pay more for it than they did.
Elaborating on why he doesn’t see value in bitcoin, he said “If you said… for a 1 percent interest in all the farmland in the US, pay our group $25 billion, I’d write you a check this afternoon. For USD 25 billion, I now own 1 percent of the farmland. If you offer me 1 percent of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another USD 25 billion, I’ll write you a check; it’s that simple. Now, if you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for USD 25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I would have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything. The farms are going to produce food, and the apartments are going to produce rent”.
This is not the first time Warren Buffet has openly spoken against Bitcoin. In the past, he has made hostile comments about this much-revered cryptocurrency by calling it “rat poison squared” and describing it as a worthless delusion. Not just Buffet, his longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, is also a staunch critic of bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general.
“In my life, I try to avoid things that are evil, stupid, and make me look bad in comparison to someone else; Bitcoin does all three,” said Munger. Munger has even gone to the lengths to compare crypto to a venereal disease and has also called for the United States to ban it. These comments come at a time when countries, including war-torn Ukraine, are accepting crypto donations in their fight against neighboring Russia.
