Warren Buffet just can’t seem to get enough of Bitcoin – enough of slamming it, that is. Barely a month goes by without the aged investor piping up about his latest thoughts on the cryptocurrency. At this point it’s a wonder he’s still bothering to talk about it any more, yet in an interview with CNBC published Monday he was asked whether his position on Bitcoin had changed, and from his response it seems that it has changed, in that it has become more confused:
“Bitcoin is genius, and blockchain is important, but Bitcoin has no unique value at all, it doesn’t produce anything – you can stare at it all day, and no little Bitcoins come out or anything like that. It’s a delusion, basically.”
This quote gives us more of an insight into the reasoning behind Buffet’s dismissiveness, especially given how he has made much of his money over the years – compound interest. In this regard he is right, Bitcoin does not produce anything that you can compound and turn into more Bitcoin, but it was never supposed to. It makes you wonder what he thinks about regular currency and how many hours he has spent staring at a dollar bill and complaining to his wife that it isn’t doing anything. You can watch his comments for yourself below:
Be Careful Who You Listen to
Buffet’s criticism that Bitcoin does not spontaneously reproduce shows that his knowledge of biology and math is still as skewed as it was back in May 2018, when he labeled the cryptocurrency “rat poison squared”. Buffet, fresh from admitting he had overpaid for Kraft when it merged with Heinz in 2015, said in the interview that he had Bitcoin and blockchain explained to him “by people a lot smarter than I am”, which might be reflected in the fact that he seems to have changed his tune on the latter.
Buffet is known for not being particularly tech-savvy, having turned down the chance to buy Google and Amazon stock in their earlier days, a move he put down to “stupidity”, so his comments on tech-related subjects should always come with more pinches of salt than a Kraft dinner. No doubt the crypto world is holding its breath for the next time Buffet is asked about Bitcoin and we get to go on another journey of complete confusion with him.
