Billionaire investor Warren Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has recently revealed his position on cryptocurrency hasn’t changed, as when asked he claimed bitcoin is a ‘gambling device’ that doesn’t produce anything.
Speaking toFox Business’ Liz Claman, the billionaire investors noted that bitcoin “doesn’t do anything,” and as such is “like a seashell of something, that is not an investment to me.” His words echo his overall investment strategy, which is to invest in businesses that generate revenue.
In the past Buffett has stated that gold doesn’t produce anything as well, although the investor hasn’t bashed the precious metal as much as he did the flagship cryptocurrency. His most recent comments came during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. He added:
People will create a gazillion of them naturally. There’s been a lot of fraud connected with them; there have been disappearances. So there has been a lot lost on it. The bitcoins haven’t produced anything.
Claman then asked Buffett that if its price increased after he bought it, it would have “arguably done something.” Buffett used his button as a metaphor, claiming that whether its price would go up or not, it still had one, very limited use at the end of the day.
Buffett added that everyone he knows who understand cryptocurrency and blockchain technology believes blockchain is “very big,” but doesn’t necessarily need BTC. He used JPMorgan Chase, which recently launched its own cryptocurrency, as an example.
Notably Buffett and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, have last year told investors to “just beware” of bitcoin. Last year, Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman Charlie Munger slammed the cryptocurrency, comparing it to “turds” and “dementia.”
Earlier this year, the Oracle of Omaha claimed, during an interview with CNBC, that bitcoin is a “delusion” that “attracts charlatans.” At the time, he also noted he believes bitcoin has “no unique value” and “doesn’t produce anything.”
