At the annual meeting of his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), legendary investor Warren Buffett explained in detail why he doesn’t like Bitcoin (BTC) or believe in cryptocurrencies.
At his annual shareholder meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska over the weekend, Buffett said 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 when speaking of Bitcoin. “It’s got a magic to it and people have attached magic to lots of things.”
Buffet added that there’s “nobody” that’s short on Bitcoin, everyone is a long-term holder of the largest cryptocurrency.
Buffett went on to explain 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. “[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. 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.”
Both Buffett and his long-time business partner Charlie Munger have made hostile comments about Bitcoin in the past. Most famously, Buffett said Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.”
Munger doubled down on that sentiment over the weekend. Speaking to shareholders, 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 – and Bitcoin does all three.”
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock is up 7% year to date at $322.83 U.S. a share. It’s risen 16% in the past year.
