“Perhaps cryptocurrency isn’t “rat poison” after all?” suggested the legendary investor. He is one of those people who can predict or know what will happen before it happens.
As a result, when people like him express concern about the future of cryptocurrencies, it has a significant impact on the broader market.
Berkshire Hathaway, in particular, has invested $1 billion in a digital bank that focuses on cryptocurrency.
Warren Buffett, the famed investor known as the “sage of Omaha” for knowing things before the rest of the market, once said these words. His money is now stating the opposite, Fortune reported.
Business magnate and investor, Warren Buffett, who previously described cryptocurrency as “rat poison,” has invested $1 billion in Nubank, a digital bank based in Brazil.
Nubank, also known as neobank, is a sort of bank that works outside of the regular banking system’s rules. NuInvest, the digital bank’s investing arm, allows users to invest in a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), tapping into a financial market that Berkshire’s executives have showed little enthusiasm for.
Buffett’s longstanding colleague and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, has not shied away from expressing his strong views on Bitcoin.
Munger recently remarked that he wishes cryptocurrencies had “never been invented,” and that he would not want any cryptocurrency traders marrying into his family. With his particular dislike for Bitcoin, once described as “disgusting and opposed to civilization’s interests.”
Munger has backed China’s decision to prohibit Bitcoin trade in the nation and has urged the US to follow suit. He had earlier said that the Chinese had decided wisely when they banned them.
Berkshire Hathaway’s latest investment in Nubank is not the first time the conglomerate has dabbled in the crypto industry, despite its owners’ professed contempt for cryptocurrencies and the crypto market.
Last summer, Berkshire purchased a $500 million investment in Nubank, months before the business went public in December 2021. Nubank declared at the time that this was the single largest investment the fintech bank had ever received, reports said.
Berkshire Hathaway announced that it had lost nearly $3 billion in its Visa and Mastercard shares in the same SEC filing that revealed the $1 billion investment in Nubank.
While Buffett and the 98-year-old billionaire investor may have a personal dislike for bitcoin, they may see an entirely different kind of opportunity in Nubank and other digital financial service companies.
