{"id":41001,"title":"Billionaire Warren Buffett Trashes Bitcoin Again: ‘It’s Rat Poison Squared’","publisher":"Share Talk","author":"sharetalk","published":"2018-05-15T08:12:58+00:00","modified":"2018-05-15T08:12:58+00:00","canonical_url":"https://www.share-talk.com/billionaire-warren-buffett-trashes-bitcoin-again-its-rat-poison-squared/","markdown_url":"https://www.share-talk.com/billionaire-warren-buffett-trashes-bitcoin-again-its-rat-poison-squared.md","json_url":"https://www.share-talk.com/billionaire-warren-buffett-trashes-bitcoin-again-its-rat-poison-squared.json","category":"Fintech","categories":["Fintech"],"tags":["Bitcoin","Crypto","cryptocurrencies","cryptocurrency","Warren Buffett"],"featured_image":"https://i0.wp.com/www.share-talk.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Stencil-Google-Chrome-2023-04-19-at-2.47.43-PM.jpeg?fit=1231%2C615&quality=89&ssl=1","format":"news","language":"en-GB","content":"Billionaire Warren Buffett, a notorious bitcoin bear, blasted cryptocurrencies again at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting on May 5.\n\nBuffett reiterated his earlier warning that “cryptocurrencies will come to bad endings,” the Wall Street Journal [reported](https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/berkshire-hathaway-2018-annual-meeting-analysis/card/1525547785). “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.”\n\nBuffett previously said buying crypto isn’t real investing, but is merely [speculative gambling](https://www.ccn.com/warren-buffet-compares-buying-bitcoin-to-gambling/), as CNN has reported. He said unlike real estate or company stocks, virtual currencies have no real value and only attract “charlatans.”‘\n\n“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.”\n\n## Berkshire Boss: Bitcoin Is A Turd\n\nBuffett 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.\n\n> [!\\[\\](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1193710103/white_shirt_pic_of_web_bigger.jpg)](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick)\n>\n> Becky Quick\n>\n> ✔@BeckyQuick\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n> .[@WarrenBuffett](https://twitter.com/WarrenBuffett) on bitcoin just now: “it’s probably rat poison squared.” [#brk2018](https://twitter.com/hashtag/brk2018?src=hash)\n> [12:56 – 5 May 2018](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick/status/992734797939314689)\n>\n>\n>\n> [350](https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=992734797939314689)\n>\n>\n> [243 people are talking about this](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick/status/992734797939314689)\n\nBuffett’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.\n\n“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.”\n\n> [!\\[\\](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1193710103/white_shirt_pic_of_web_bigger.jpg)](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick)\n>\n> Becky Quick\n>\n> ✔@BeckyQuick\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n> Charlie Munger: “I like cryptocurrency even less than Warren does … to me it’s just dementia.” And a bitcoin trading desk is “like somebody else is trading turds and you’re being left out.”\n> [20:11 – 5 May 2018](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick/status/992844127325712384)\n>\n>\n>\n> [189](https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=992844127325712384)\n>\n>\n> [108 people are talking about this](https://twitter.com/BeckyQuick/status/992844127325712384)\n\nWith 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](https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrencies-will-come-bad-ending-warren-buffett/),” as CCN has reported.\n\n“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.”\n\n## Younger Billionaires Are Bullish On Bitcoin\n\nWhile Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger remain avowed crypto skeptics, a younger generation of tech billionaires like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and tech venture capitalist Tim Draper are unmoved in their conviction that bitcoin is here to stay and will displace all other currencies.\n\nIn fact, Draper is so confident in the future of crypto that he has set a [$250,000 bitcoin price target](https://www.ccn.com/billionaire-tim-draper-sets-250000-bitcoin-price-target-for-2022/) for 2022, as CCN has reported.\n\nDraper, an early investor in Skype, Tesla, and Hotmail, says bitcoin will be bigger than all three combined because it’s a revolution that’s bigger than the Internet.\n\n“This is bigger than the internet,” Draper said. “It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution. This affects the entire world and it’s going to be affected in a faster and more prevalent way than you ever imagined.”\n\n*Featured image from Flickr/[Fortune Conferences](https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortunempw/).*\n\nThe post [Billionaire Warren Buffett Trashes Bitcoin Again: ‘It’s Rat Poison Squared’](https://www.ccn.com/billionaire-warren-buffett-trashes-bitcoin-again-its-rat-poison-squared/)appeared first on [CCN](https://www.ccn.com/)."}