The billionaire investor Warren Buffett has once again lashed out at bitcoin (BTC), claiming that he “would not accept” all the BTC in the world if it was offered to him for just $25.
The 91-year-old, with a net worth of about $124 billion, is an avid cryptocurrency skeptic who once called bitcoin “rat poison squared.” His arguments typically revolve around digital assets offering no tangible value, and the community has been quick to point out this time that there are myriad use cases and utility in cryptocurrencies that Buffett likely hasn’t investigated.
Speaking at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, Buffett weighed in on cryptocurrencies in relation to the growing adoption of the sector by the population. He noted that although he has no idea if the value of BTC will increase in the future, he is sure that it “produces nothing”.
Buffett argued that he would happily write “a check this afternoon” worth $25 billion for 1% of all farmland or “apartment houses” in the United States, since both produce real-world utility.but I wouldn’t even spend $25 for 100% of the Bitcoin supply:
“Now if you told me you own all the Bitcoin in the world and 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 doesn’t produce anything. The apartments are going to produce income and the farms are going to produce food.”
“Assets, to have value, have to give something to someone. And there is only one currency that is accepted,” he added.
Well-known cryptocurrency advocates mocked Buffett’s comments on Twitter over the weekend.
warren buffett thinking crypto is worth zero is funny bc he has literally no idea that ethereum just had a customer pay $150M to use the software for 2 hours.
— Ξ (@scott_lew_is) May 1, 2022
That Warren Buffett thinks that cryptocurrencies are worth zero is funny because he literally has no idea that Ethereum just had a customer pay $150 million to use the software for 2 hours.
The co-founder of the large cryptocurrency venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Marc Andreessen noted that “it’s so wild that he says these things while nakedly promoting diabetes,” referring to an array of boxes of See’s Candies and soda cans on Buffett’s desk during the speech.
In response, Tesla CEO and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk said, “haha, he says ‘Bitcoin’ so many times.” While MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor commented that “no one can stop talking about Bitcoin”.
Haha he says “Bitcoin” so many times
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2022
Haha says “Bitcoin” so many times
Jamie Dimon pays a small compliment to cryptocurrencies
One crypto skeptic who is at least softening his stance somewhat is JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
The banker once described bitcoin as “fraud” and has continually reiterated that he has no interest in endorsing the sector on a personal level, even though JP Morgan has approached digital assets in a significant way in the last two years.
In an interview with the Omaha media outlet KMTV 3, Dimon noted that while he still doesn’t particularly like cryptocurrencies and urges caution when investing in them, he “will stand up for other people’s right to do so.”
He also highlighted that cryptocurrencies sometimes serve important use cases, especially when it comes to cross-border payments:
“Not everything is bad. If you tell me ‘I want to send $200 to a friend in a foreign country’, that could take you two weeks and cost you $40. You could do it through a digital currency and it would take seconds.”
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