The battle of words between Warren Buffett and his sidekick Charlie Munger against crypto evangelists around bitcoin is escalating.
Bitcoin has always divided people — and things are not about to change.
There will always be intransigent people who say that the king of cryptocurrencies is only a speculative asset and a tool for criminals seeking to launder their assets.
For others, bitcoin protects against inflation, limits the power of governments and central banks, and that above all it is a coin that opens the doors of finance to all regardless of their social background, race, gender or residence.
While it is possible to convince the anti-bitcoin to go the way towards the supporters of the coin it is very rare that it happens in the opposite direction.
One of the most fascinating battles to watch is the one between legendary investor Warren Buffett, 91, and his business partner Charlie Munger, 98, against the bitcoin evangelists.
This particular fight is one fought with harsh words that can sometimes turn into insults.
The most recent episode broke out at this week’s annual meeting of shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) – Get Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class A Report, Buffett’s conglomerate.
New Hostile Comments Against Bitcoin
Buffett went in hard on the currency, with criticisms lined up and ready to go.
“If the people in this room owned all the farmland in the U.S. and you offered me a 1% interest and pay our group $25 billion, I will write you a check this afternoon,” Buffett told his fans and admirers gathered in Omaha, Neb.
“If you tell me you own 1% of apartment houses in the U.S. and you offer me 1% interest and you want $25 billion, I will write you a check,” the billionaire added.
“[But] if you tell me you own all the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? It is going to do anything,” Buffett argued. “If I try to get rid of it, why should I buy some bitcoin?”
This is not the Oracle of Omaha’s first criticism of bitcoin. He once believed that the world’s first cryptocurrency is “probably rat poison squared.”
“Whether it goes up and down, in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything,” Buffett said on April 30. “It’s got a magic to it and people have attached magic to lots of things.”
His buddy Munger sitting next to him didn’t mince his words about bitcoin either.
“I try to avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad and bitcoin does all three,” Munger said. “It is stupid, could go to zero.”
Critics of the two nonagenarians have not escaped bitcoin evangelists, including billionaires Elon Musk and Michael Saylor, or tech investor Marc Andreessen.
They mostly chose to laugh it off rather than fire back with scathing criticism.
‘Sociopath Grandpa’
“Haha he says ‘Bitcoin’ so many times,” Musk posted on Twitter, following a post from Andreessen showing Buffett.
“Everyone can’t stop talking about #Bitcoin,” Saylor commented.
Other crypto fans were less measured.
“If bitcoin is useless, the dinosaurs have nothing to worry about,” one user commented.
“When it comes to #Bitcoin WB continues to be wrong,” another user posted. “Future is crypto not Gold imho.”
Criticism of Warren Buffett for his opposition to bitcoin reached an all-time high last month when billionaire and investor Peter Thiel called the iconic investor a “sociapath grandpa.”
He presented the legendary investor as “Enemy No. 1” of bitcoin.
Thiel, who is a friend with Musk, is a big investor in crypto and especially in bitcoin via venture firm Founders Fund.
But in general, crypto supporters portray the debate around bitcoin as a battle between the old guard of finance and the new guard that wants to disrupt the financial system and open it up to all by getting rid of intermediaries.
