Bitcoin Critic Warren Buffett Slams Crypto Again, Calls It A ‘Gambling Token’
Warren Buffett has issued a warning that there has been a gambling boom in financial markets. He also threw a jab at bitcoin, stating that the cryptocurrency has no inherent value.
Although the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased by over 80% since the start of the year, the most popular cryptocurrency asset still has its critics.
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Is Bitcoin a ‘game’ currency?
In an interview on Wednesday with CNBC, one of the most successful investors in the world, known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, took the opportunity to give Bitcoin another try, this time calling it a “gambling token”.
“#Bitcoin it is a game token and has no intrinsic value. But that doesn’t stop people from wanting to play roulette,” says Warren Buffett about #crypto. pic.twitter.com/6MQAiyrS5J
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 12, 2023
Buffett made the following observation in reference to gambling in general:
“The desire to participate in something that looks like easy money is a human instinct that has always been there.”
The head of Berkshire Hathaway has referred to the popular cryptocurrency as “rat poison squared” and declared it a “mirage” that attracts charlatans. Furthermore, he warned investors to avoid cryptocurrency, describing it as an “illusion”.
The criticism of Bitcoin that comes from the business tycoon’s notion that investments must have some sort of inherent value is where the criticism originates.
The anti-crypto billionaire views these types of digital assets as speculative, vulnerable to dramatic price swings, and lacking any fundamental value.
Buffett is not a fan of Bitcoin
In recent weeks, there have been significant gains across all cryptocurrency markets. According to Messari, Bitcoin and Ethereum saw respective gains of 61% and 35%, although they are still approximately 56% and 36% behind their all-time highs, reached in November 2021.
On Tuesday, BTC price crossed $30,000 for the first time. The previous time it occurred was in June. Two days later, it was still approximately $29,900 at that point.
It is common knowledge that Buffett is not a fan of bitcoin; in fact, he has previously stated that even if someone offered him $25 for all the bitcoin (BTC) in the world, he would not buy it.
His Senior Vice President and Vice President at Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, has been even more vocal over the years about his distaste for alpha currency. Earlier this year, he asked the US government to ban cryptocurrency in a similar way to China.
According to Buffett, the human propensity for gambling is one of the factors driving cryptocurrency investment. He stated that committing funds to the asset class will “eat” his financial resources.
Bitcoin (BTC) total market cap currently at $582 billion on the daily chart at TradingView.com
Bitcoin is up nearly 8% in the last week
Several influential people have expressed their reservations about bitcoin. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, gave an interview to CNBC in January, during which he referred to bitcoin as an “overblown fraud” and likened it to a “pet rock”.
Berkshire Hathaway is now ranked as having the eighth largest market capitalization in the world in terms of assets, as reported by the most recent information from companiesmarketcap.com.
According to the same source, Bitcoin’s market cap is currently the 10th largest in the world.
At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $30,104, up 7.7% over the past seven days, shows data from crypto market tracker CoinMarketCap.
-Featured image of PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES/FORTUNE/TIME INC.