Buffett: 'If you offered me all the world's Bitcoin for $25, I wouldn't take it'

Paul Morigi/Getty Images Entertainment

Just a month after Peter Thiel called Warren Buffett the "enemy No. 1" of Bitcoin (BTC-USD), describing him as a "sociopathic grandpa from Omaha," Buffett doubled down on his outlook of the popular crypto at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting. "Nobody wants their windpipe stepped on and I don't blame them. I don't like people to step on my windpipe, but I will say this," declared Buffett, who has previously referred to Bitcoin as "probably rat poison squared."

Quote: "If you said... for a 1% interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25B, I'll write you a check this afternoon. For $25B, I now own 1% of the farmland. If you tell me you own 1% of all the apartment houses in the United States and you want another $25B, I'll write you a check, it's very simple. Now if you told me you own all of the Bitcoin (BTC-USD) in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn't take it because what would I do with it? I'd have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn't going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rental and the farms are going to produce food. That explains the difference between productive assets and something that depends on the next guy paying you more than the last guy got."

"Assets, to have value, have to deliver something to somebody. And there's only one currency that's accepted. You can come up with all kinds of things - we can put up Berkshire coins... but in the end, this is money," he announced, holding up a dollar bill. "Anyone that thinks the United States government is going to change the way they let Berkshire money replace theirs is out of their minds. Whether it goes up or 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 multiply, it doesn't produce anything. It's got a magic to it and people have attached magic to lots of things."

Munger chimes in: "In my life, I try and avoid things that are stupid, and evil, and make me look bad in comparison to somebody else - and Bitcoin (BTC-USD) does all three. In the first place, it's stupid because it's very likely to go to zero. In the second place, it's evil because it undermines the Federal Reserve system that we desperately need to maintain its integrity and government control... and third, it makes us look foolish compared to the Communist leader in China. He was smart enough to ban bitcoin in China, and with all of our presumed advantages in civilization, we are a lot dumber than the Communist leader in China."

The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research recently found that Bitcoin (BTC-USD) usage in El Salvador is underwhelming, while the U.S. dollar dominates.

Comments

[geocsmith]

Bitcoin to $1 million. I’ll buy it at $25. Buffett is clueless. That old guy knows nothing about making money.

[Wayne LeBlanc]

Money used to be based on gold which is very similar to what BUFFET is saying about value. Now we base money on faith. That’s a little different than bitcoin———it, in reality, is not really any different than a painting by Monet, except destruction of one is easier. Value is always determined by the buyer. Sadly, it looks like two old men who are jealous that a few individuals could make the kind of money they made in about 70 years in just a few years.

[Gregg Rosenberg]

@Wayne LeBlanc As people have pointed out many times, the value of fiat currency like the dollar is not based on faith or magic or anything else intangible. The value comes from its ability to be exchanged for the assets, goods and services of the United States and that's what backs it ( and for the time being, it's ability to be exchanged for oil ). So, you have the entire economic output and collected assets of the US behind the dollar.

That transactional capability isn't based on any sort of faith either. It's based in the law of the US, which is backed by the threat of state sanctioned violence used to take the freedom or property of people not obeying the law.

[antietam33]

bitcoin is down 48% since november 8,2022/ BRK.B up 10%

[jimbo162]

@antietam33 you're cherry picking stats. The 5 year chart shows BRK up 48% while BTC is up about 1200%...no comparison.

[Michael J. Cohen]

I have always viewed crypto with the same mindset as Buffet. Wouldn't touch crypto with a ten foot pole

[King4Coins]

@Michael J. Cohen in a few years you wont have a choice.

[BlueSonic]

"Now if you told me you own all of 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? I'd have to sell it back to you one way or another." and yet we have a forex market that sells $$$

[Pao41pao111]

Wall Street is doing the same stupid thing with the stocks. Some of them are worth nothing!!

[Messer42]

@Pao41pao111 I guess those dividends and partnership distributions I get are really nothing. Your understanding of value in equities is appalling and I am not sure why you are on this site.

[Pao41pao111]

Well, Stock are not different then Bitcoin.. Wall Street is doing the exact same stupid thing!!

[tech7]

@Pao41pao111 Please tell is all how an equity is the same thing as bitcoin Sir?
I am so financially uneducated and need to be enlightened by you genius.

[JustTheTruth911]

Bitcoin and the like are nothing but a pyramid scheme. Without others constantly getting in to prop up the people before you - there is nothing there.
Can we also talk the silly, uber expensive, resource draining bitcoin mining too? Insane.

[outlook69]

Bit coin will bite the dust.....can't wait to see the end, so tired of this waste of time and energy.

[Willie2]

I believe the best test for crypto will be now through the next five years. Will they survive?

[User 47397977]

How we know for sure when it's so very ... wait for it ... cryptic?
( Couldn't resist. )

[James2225]

The difference is you can’t print Bitcoin or make anymore of it. Whereas you can print as much money as you want…. This is why crypto is great 👍🏼

[outlook69]

@James2225 Dude, you wouldn't want to live in the US without deficit spending. Wake up.

[dennis rfm]

@James2225 In am trying to find out how much Bitcoin is left to mine. How will we know when it is all done?

[KCL8]

@James2225 It’a worst cause you can mint all other kinds of worthless coins also like Doge that actually admits it is a joke and worthless. All that wasted energy from our finite planet. Crypto always has a cost that everyone else always has to pay for!

[BobinJax]

Digital coins equal digital tulip bulbs.

[tech7]

Mark my words. Just as many equities never rose again from the ashes of the tech and financial bubbles, so will bitcoin not rise again. Game over for bitcoin.

[mutsavj]

Guess Warren Buffoon doesn't believe in workers' 401k plans either ...cuz they are going to start allowing employees to invest in Bitcoin in 'em. What an old dinosaur.

[Jpokergman]

@mutsavj Maybe he's just being very kind to the unaware people.

[Bryant24]

@mutsavj Are you suggesting everything offered in a 401K plan is a good investment by the very nature of a 401K? Or that if you don't agree with any single investment offered in 401K's than you are somehow against the entire concept of a 401K? Enron once recommended that all of their employees invest their entire 401k into the company stock, how did that workout for them?

[Messer42]

@mutsavj A very successful old dinosaur.

[Keith Ledger]

i'm desperate for a new life and very desperate to get rich. this is why i believe in bitcoin. buy buy buy so i can sell. please help me make money.

[Hermann Balck]

@Keith Ledger lmfao, funny lol about sums up the whole craziness. Hey everyone, listen and look at me, I just bought doggie coin!

[tech7]

@Keith Ledger Love the sarcasm. This is what so many who own this POS were hoping for. While offering no logical reason for its continued existence.

[Portfolio Manager q]

Anyone with half a clue of what Bitcoin is will swear that the technology and infrastructure that most well known crypto uses is seriously outdated. The Ethereum network crashed at the first sight of congestion a few days ago.

Anyone who says that Crypto is the next frontier for technology is deluded or doesnt have a clue of what he is talking about.

The only use of Crypto is as a store of value and nothing else. But as its not backed by anything, it has less value than the trash can outside your house.

[jimbo162]

@Portfolio Manager q a true misconception from the getgo....what backs the USD? What backs gold? What backs oil, or even Tesla stock. Beauty obviously is in the eye of the beholder. I own all of the above and say one needs to be diversified and well balanced. Bitcoin is gaining year by year in adoption, yet you claim it is "outdated", seriously. It will be the center of the coming metaverse, it has only just begun. Give it 10-12 years to mature fully.

[Hermann Balck]

@Portfolio Manager q agree, what a waste of energy to produce digital pet rocks.

[jimbo162]

@Hermann Balck funny..."digital pet rocks" you claim. those junk marketing items lasted maybe a year and were never valued anywhere near $40,000 a piece. Pet rocks were never used as money or a store of value that could be used to buy goods and services worldwide in a matter of minutes in whatever denomination that was needed. The comparison is mute and childish.

[tech7]

Bitcoin breaking support. Once the false confidence gives way the price will drop like a rock.

[RedinAfrica]

@tech7 heard that at least 486 times before...and still here we are...

[tech7]

NFT sales down 92%. Soon this will be bitcoins inevitable fate.

[bluedove666]

Of course he won't, he is an old recorder from the past era.

[John Jeckle]

@bluedove666 people have been saying Warren's behind the times for 40 years but somehow he's worth $200 billion. There is no "past era". Investing in productive companies makes money in every era. Investing in lines of code might make money too, but it might go to zero. Many cryptos have. A basket of profitable companies will make lots of money in any climate.

[fmont]

@John Jeckle ceoworld.biz/...

I am not sure where you get your info from that Buffet is worth $200 billion, the link provided shows the net worth of the worlds top 10 richest people as of April 2022. Warren Buffet is often praised as the worlds greatest investor (I say not even close!), he bought Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, he has had a head start in investing of numerous years over every guy on this list, some were not even born when he took over Berkshire Hathaway, the link provided shows that Buffet is 6th wealthiest on the list. Buffet should be the wealthiest guy on this list when you consider the tremendous head start that he had over everybody on the list. Buffets way of investing is antiquated, what worked nearly 60 years ago is not how it is done today, he needs to change his paradigms and see things in a different perspective, It is a new day & a new way of doing things, the world is constantly changing, what worked in the 20th Century does not apply to what is happening in the 21st Century.

Elon Musk Born: June 28th 1971 age 6 when Buffet took over Berkshire Hathaway $249 Bn
Jeff Bezos Born: January 12th 1964 age 1 when Buffet took over Berkshire Hathaway $148 Bn
Bill Gates Born: October 28th 1955 age 10 when Buffet took over Berkshire Hathaway $125 Bn

[John Jeckle]

@fmont Warren Buffett has given away half of his Berkshire share holdings since 2006. With them he'd be worth well over $200 billion.

www.forbes.com/...

[A norwegian guy]

""Just a month after Peter Thiel called Warren Buffett the "enemy No. 1" of Bitcoin (BTC-USD), describing him as a "sociopathic grandpa from Omaha," Buffett doubled down on his outlook of the popular crypto at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting.""

How is it possible a 91 year old can be declared as enemy no. 1 of bitcoin? Even more so when said 91 year old is a stranger to most things technical. I am lousy but apparently Warren Buffett is even worse. Buffett may shout from the roof tops but to what audience? Me? I am already a know nothing sceptic like Munger.