A ‘bad ending’ is coming for cryptocurrencies, warns Warren Buffett
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has also announced an expansion of its board to 14 members
Investment guru Warren Buffett has warned people away from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, saying that their skyrocketing value is likely fleeting.
“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say almost with certainty that they will come to a bad ending,” Buffett said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday.
Now when it happens, or how or anything else, I don’t know. But I know this: If I could buy a five year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I’d be glad to do it but I would never short a dime’s worth.”
Buffett, the 87-year-old chairman and CEO of holding company Berkshire Hathaway, is one of the world’s most prominent investors. He is worth an estimated $86.3 billion.
Buffett’s comments came one day after JPMorgan & Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he regrets calling bitcoin a fraud, referring to comments he made at a banking conference in September.
“The blockchain is real,” he told Fox Business. “You can have cryptodollars in yen and stuff like that. ICOs … you got to look at every one individually.
“The bitcoin was always to me what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big. And I just have a different opinion than other people.”
That is a sharp turnaround from October, when Dimon said: “If you’re stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day.”
Bitcoin has taken the investing world by storm, surging to a high of more than $19,000 and created a divide on Wall Street about whether it is a legitimate financial instrument.
Also on Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway announced that it was adding Gregory E. Abel and Ajit Jain as directors, boosting the size of its board to 14 members.
