Billionaire Warren Buffett, a notorious bitcoin bear, blasted cryptocurrencies again at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting on May 5.
Buffett reiterated his earlier warning that “cryptocurrencies will come to bad endings,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “If you had bought gold at the time of Christ and you figure the compound rate on it, it’s a couple tenths of a percent.”
Buffett previously said buying crypto isn’t real investing, but is merely speculative gambling, as CNN has reported. He said unlike real estate or company stocks, virtual currencies have no real value and only attract “charlatans.”‘
“If you buy something like bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don’t really have anything that has produced anything,” said Buffett, 87. “You’re just hoping the next guy pays more.”
Berkshire Boss: Bitcoin Is A Turd
Buffett went a step further by calling bitcoin “rat poison squared,” according to CNBC reporter Becky Quick, who live-tweeted the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting.
Buffett’s longtime lieutenant, billionaire Charlie Munger, joined the bitcoin bashing, comparing the top cryptocurrency by market cap to turds being traded by people with dementia.
“I like cryptocurrency even less than Warren does … to me it’s just dementia,” Munger, 94, reportedly said. And a bitcoin trading desk is “like somebody else is trading turds and you’re being left out.”
With his latest jabs, Buffett reiterated his past scathing take-downs of digital currencies. In January 2018, he said crypto will “come to a bad ending,” as CCN has reported.
“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,” Buffett predicted. “If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I’d be glad to do it but I would never short a dime’s worth.”