Billionaire investor Warren Buffett doubled down on his Bitcoin criticism today, once again suggesting that the asset is nothing more than a get-rich-quick scheme.
In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, the Berkshire Hathaway boss said he didn’t blame people for wanting to get involved in what looks like “easy money.”
The “Oracle of Omaha” has long been a Bitcoin skeptic, going as far as calling the digital asset “rat poison squared” that has “no unique value at all.”
And today he continued his critique. “Something like Bitcoin, it’s a gambling token,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “The urge to participate in something where it looks like easy money is a human instinct which has been unleashed and has always been there.”
"#Bitcoin is a gambling token and it doesn't have any intrinsic value. But that doesn't stop people from wanting to play the roulette wheel," says Warren Buffett on #crypto. pic.twitter.com/6MQAiyrS5J
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 12, 2023
He continued: “It’s so human. People love the idea of getting rich quick—I don’t blame them,” before adding that Bitcoin doesn’t have any value but people still want to “play the roulette wheel” by investing in it.
Buffett, one of the world’s richest men with an estimated net worth of $111 billion, made his money from investing in companies he considered to have real value and sitting on their stock for the long-term.
Despite repeatedly bashing Bitcoin, the old-school investor has previously touted the benefits of blockchain technology, saying that it could become a “disruptive” force within finance.
Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger has gone even further with Bitcoin bashing by putting the world’s oldest cryptocurrency in the same bracket as child trafficking.
But Bitcoin is on a roll this year: It hit the $30,000 mark for the first time in 10 months on Monday.
It has since dropped and now is trading for $29,842, CoinGecko data shows—but it’s still 80% higher than it was at the start of January, when it was trading for as low as $16,615. BTC is up by around 35% in just the last 30 days alone.
The crypto asset’s start to 2023 no doubt has investors rejoicing, but it’s little solace to those who bought the top in 2021: Bitcoin remains down 56% from its all-time high of just above $69,000.