During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger took aim at bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency business.
“If you told me you owned all the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it,” Buffett stated. “What would I do with it?”
Buffett, on the other hand, has stated that he would acquire a section of the country’s farmland or some of the country’s apartments. He restated his belief that bitcoin is worthless since it produces nothing, and that holders rely on someone else willing to pay more for it than they did.
“It’s got a magic to it,” Buffett continued, comparing bitcoin to an insurance firm promoting itself as a technological marvel.
Buffett’s longstanding business partner, Munger, was even harsher in his assessment of the most valued cryptocurrency.
“In my life, I try and avoid things that are stupid, evil, and make me look bad in comparison to someone else,” Munger stated . “Bitcoin does all three.”
Holding bitcoin is “stupid” because he expects it to be worth zero dollars in the future, “evil” because it undermines the integrity and stability of the US financial system, and “foolish” since China’s governing party was clever enough to outlaw it, according to the billionaire investor.
Bitcoin has previously been criticized by Warren Buffett as “rat poison squared” and a worthless fantasy. Meanwhile, Munger has compared cryptocurrency to a venereal illness, urged for its ban in the United States, and criticized the huge speculation that has fueled its recent price gains.
Bitcoin () is a decentralized digital currency that may be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the use of intermediaries. It has no central bank or single administrator.
Network nodes use cryptography to verify transactions, which are then stored in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for an unknown individual or group of people, created the cryptocurrency in 2008. When the currency’s implementation was released as open-source software in 2009, it went into usage.
Bitcoins are created as a result of the mining process. They can be exchanged for a variety of other currencies, goods, and services. Bitcoin has been chastised for its usage in unlawful transactions, the vast amount of electricity required for mining (and consequently the associated carbon impact), price volatility, and exchange robberies. At various times, certain investors and economists have labeled it a speculative bubble. Others have utilized it as an investment, despite the fact that various regulatory bodies have issued bitcoin investor alerts.