Warren Buffett calls Bitcoin a gambling token

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Warren Buffett doesn’t see much value in Bitcoin, despite its recent price rally. The Berkshire Hathaway boss, however, sympathizes with people hoping to get rich quick. Something like bitcoin is a gambling token, and it has no intrinsic value. But that doesn’t stop people from wanting to play roulette, Buffett said during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday.

Bitcoin was trading above $30,000 on Thursday, after starting the year below $17,000. But it is still considerably down from its high of nearly $69,000 in November 2021.

In mid-February, Mike Novogratz, CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, noted the building of FOMO around Bitcoin, referring to the fear of missing out. At the time, Bitcoin was trading just below $24,800, and Novogratz said he wouldn’t be surprised if it hit $30,000 in late March.

Although Buffett didn’t mention FOMO, he said Wednesday, the urge to participate in something where it looks like easy money is a human instinct running wild. People like the idea of ​​getting rich quick, and I don’t blame them. It’s so human, and once released, you can’t put it back in the bottle.

Buffett and Berkshire VP Charlie Munger have a long history of bitcoin bashing.

In 2018, Buffett said that Bitcoin was probably squared rat poison at Berkshire Hathaway’s 2018 shareholder meeting. He added on CNBC at the time, When you buy non-performing assets, everything what you’re counting on is that the next person will pay you more because they’re even more excited about another person coming.

When he made the comments, Bitcoin was trading just below $10,000, well below the highs it would reach in the years to come. But Buffett and Munger have been consistent in their critique of the digital token.

Munger, Buffett’s longtime right-hand man, was particularly tough. In April last year he said about bitcoin, it’s stupid because it’s still likely to go to zero, and it’s bad because it undermines the Federal Reserve system. He also praised China for banning Bitcoin.

And earlier this year, Munger called on the United States to ban cryptocurrencies altogether, saying in another interview that he was not proud of my country for allowing them to thrive.

But Bitcoin bulls continue to predict massive increases in coin value. In February, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, who is heavily invested in crypto, predicted that Bitcoin would hit $1.48 million by 2030, up from $1 million previously.

On the other hand, Mark Mobius, the billionaire co-founder of Mobius Capital Partners, predicted in December that Bitcoin would fall to $10,000 at some point this year.

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