During an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on April 12, Warren Buffett reiterated his negative stance on cryptocurrencies, referring to the market as an “explosion of gambling”. Although he softened his position slightly, historically he has been publicly critical. In a 2014 Squawk Box interview, he called Bitcoin “a mirage” with “no intrinsic value”, and predicted it may not survive in the longer term. In 2018, he referred to the cryptocurrency as “rat poison squared”. Although he shrugged off a question about when Bitcoin would be revealed as “not a thing”, he likened it to gambling and stated that it had “no intrinsic value”. He also drew similarities to chain letters, and claimed that Bitcoin users were essentially gambling with their income. As we previously reported, Bitcoin’s price had outperformed Buffett’s own investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in early 2023.
