All the crypto enthusiast’s that were doing victory laps after heavy Bitcoin endorsements from traditional technology powerhouses such as IBM, and financial giants like JPMorgan; were taken aback by Warren Buffett’s recent comments about Bitcoin.
The Billionaire investor doubled down on his Bitcoin criticism while in an interview with CNBC’s Betty Quick by saying;
“Bitcoin has no unique value at all,” he went on to say “It is a delusion, basically.”
The Berkshire Hathaway CEO who is revered for his investment acumen, said that he was very sympathetic to enthusiast’s who bought into Bitcoin hoping “it would change their lives”.
Bitcoin has dipped in value by more than 80 percent since peaking to almost $20,000 a coin, at the end of 2017.
According to crypto publication Coindesk; the crypto-currency was trading at nearly $3,781 as of Monday Feb 25.
About Bitcoin, Warren Buffett said; “It attracts Charlatans”.
He went on to say;
“If you do something phony by going out and selling yo-yos or something, there’s no money in it — but when you get into Wall Street, there’s huge money.”
Buffet has been known for his long held reservations and criticism of Bitcoin. He has called Bitcoin all manner of disparaging names such as “A mirage”, “Tulips”, “not a currency”, and “probably rat poison squared” according to CNBC’s Warren Buffett Archive.
In what might be seen by some as a “throwing a bone” to crypto enthusiasts, Mr Buffett pointed at the potential of Bitcoin’s underlying technology which is the Blockchain; but he insisted that its success does not depend on crypto-currency.
Warren Buffett is not the only high profile crypto skeptic out there. Other high profile Business leaders who are not into crypto and criticize it at every turn include; economists Robert Shiller, and Nouriel Roubini, fund managers Howard Marks and Ray Dalio as well as Microsoft Boss, Bill gates.
Another popular figure known for his crypto cyniscm is J.P Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dixon. Surprisingly enough, J.P Morgan became the first major bank to launch its own proprietary crypto-currency to enable cross-border payments.
Warren Buffett’s criticism does not really come as a surprise if you think about it. Warren Buffett has built great wealth on traditional stocks. People who operate in those circles were absolutely lost when crypto markets were showing a lot of volatility back in 2017. Why? Because traditional stocks do not move that fast, so it’s no wonder that these investors questioned the legitimacy of crypto.
What’s for sure though is that crypto markets seem to have hit a level of maturity where the volatility is just not that high anymore. Despite some of the high percentage gains made by ethereum and Ripple the past few weeks, the crypto markets seem to be behaving a lot like traditional stocks.
Featured image courtesy of marketwatch.com
