Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and a long-time business partner of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has recently claimed the “bitcoin people” celebrate the life of Judas Iscariot, the apostle that betrayed Jesus, in their happy hours.
Speaking during the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting, Munger told the audience he was invited to a happy hour by the “bitcoin people,” and added:
I wonder what they have been doing in their happy hour, and I finally figured it out. They celebrate the life and work of Judas Iscariot.
Munger has in the past claimed he sees bitcoin and the cryptocurrency system as “anti-social, stupid, immortal,” and in another occasion claimed he dislikes cryptocurrencies more than Buffett himself. At the time, Munger claimed trading bitcoin was like “dementia,” and claimed it was “like somebody else is trading turds and you decide you can’t be left out.”
Highlight: “Your vice chairman is getting new social distinction,” Munger says. “I've been invited during the gathering to go to a happy hour put together by the bitcoin people. And I tried to figure out what the bitcoin do in their happy hour and I finally figured it out…” pic.twitter.com/BM7FHiKPyf
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) May 4, 2019
Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, then shared a story about his honeymoon in Las Vegas in 1952, when he saw people who came from all over the world to gamble in casinos, something “every damn one of them knew was mathematically dumb.”
The billionaire investors recalled telling his wife they were “going to make a lot of money” because of the gamblers’ attitudes, and added bitcoin reminds him of the feeling he had then. Buffett, as recently reported, sees bitcoin as a “gambling device” based on speculation, and not as an investment.
He noted, however, that blockchain technology has potential, but doesn’t necessarily need BTC. He used JP Morgan Chase, which launched its own cryptocurrency earlier this year, as an example.
When asked whether Berkshire was investing in blockchain technology, the Oracle of Omaha noted they’re probably doing so “indirectly through a bank,” and added he “wouldn’t be the person to be a big leader in blockchain.”
Currently, Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio includes giants like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Moody’s, as well as various financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase.
