Why does everyone at Berkshire Hathaway have to hate cryptocurrency and bitcoin so much? It can’t just be reserved to figures like Warren Buffett; it also needs to include every executive like Charlie Munger.
Munger Is No Stranger to Hating BTC
Munger is the vice chairman of the hedge fund Berkshire Hathaway. Munger has bashed BTC before, and it looks like he’s back to his same old tricks. In a recent interview, he comments:
I hate things like bitcoin. I hat things that are intrinsically antisocial… People in the investment management industry should prepare for tougher times ahead. They are wretched excessing in many well-paid hedge fund and private equity businesses.
From the sound of these words, it seems like Munger is angry at far more than bitcoin. He seems to be putting down the people involved in the hedge fund world and the attitude that largely stems from it.
It’s hard to know if Munger truly feels this way about crypto or if he’s just following Buffett’s path. In the past, Buffett has been a hard-knocking opponent of all things crypto, even going so far as to refer to it as “rat poison.”
At the same time, there is a side of Buffett that appears open-minded enough to learn about it and see where it goes. Nothing suggests this more than his willingness to enjoy an expensive lunch with TRON CEO Justin Sun, who won the lunch for an impressive $4.5 million. After months of holds and delays, Sun finally sat down with the Berkshire Hathaway leader earlier this month and gifted him a new phone that held an entire bitcoin in its memory stash.
Buffett, as we know, was good enough to accept the gift. This suggests that perhaps Buffett is changing his mind, or if we can’t go that far yet, perhaps he’s at least willing to learn a bit more about its properties before disposing of it or selling it off completely.
Some People Don’t Change
Either way, it’s a step forward. Munger, on the other hand, appears rather relentless in his distaste and lack of trust for the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap. In the past, he’s gone so far as to call bitcoin “worthless, artificial gold,” and in May of last year, stated:
I think the people who are professional traders that go into trading cryptocurrencies, it’s just disgusting. It’s like somebody else is trading turds and you decide, ‘I can’t be left out.’
It’s a harsh way to look at digital assets. He also seems to take great issue with the “fear of missing out” (FOMO) mentality that some might associate with the world’s leading cryptocurrency. He suggests that many people getting involved aren’t doing so because they want to; they’re simply looking to get in on the action at all costs, regardless of the potential outcome.