Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has never been shy about his disdain for Bitcoin—but in early 2019, he offered a slightly upgraded assessment. In a CNBC interview with Becky Quick, Buffett described the world's largest cryptocurrency as both “ingenious” and a “delusion,” admitting his opinion had improved but maintaining that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and attracts charlatans.
An ‘Ingenious’ Delusion
During the interview, Buffett stressed that his fundamental view of Bitcoin remains unchanged. “Bitcoin, it’s ingenious. And blockchain is important. But Bitcoin has no unique value at all. It doesn’t produce anything. You can stare at it all day, and no little bitcoins come out or anything like that. It’s a delusion, basically,” he said. The 88-year-old investor had previously labeled Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared” in 2018, and had used words like “mirage,” “not a currency,” and “tulips” to describe the cryptocurrency.
From ‘Rat Poison Squared’ to ‘Delusion’: An Upgrade
Quick observed that Buffett’s stance had “gone from rat poison squared to a delusion,” and called it “kind of an upgrade.” Buffett did not disagree, replying: “Well, yeah, you know, who knows where we’ll be next year.” The Oracle of Omaha acknowledged the cleverness behind Bitcoin’s design: “It was a very ingenious thing, to figure out how to have limited supply and make it harder and more expensive to create, all that sort of thing.” He added that people smarter than him have explained that blockchain does not depend on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin ‘Attracts Charlatans’
However, Buffett quickly returned to his critical stance, claiming that Bitcoin “attracts charlatans.” He elaborated: “If you do something phony by going out and selling yo-yos or something, there’s no money in it—but when you get into Wall Street, there’s huge money.” Buffett is not alone in his skepticism. The article notes that Bill Gates, Nouriel Roubini, Robert Shiller, Ray Dalio, Howard Marks, and J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon have all questioned Bitcoin’s legitimacy. Dimon famously called it a fraud in 2017, later regretted that statement, and then saw his firm launch a dollar-linked stablecoin.