Warren Buffett has issued a warning that there has been a gambling boom in the financial markets. He also took a jab at bitcoin, stating that the cryptocurrency has no inherent value.
Although the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has risen more than 80% since the beginning of the year, the most popular cryptocurrency asset still has its critics.
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Is Bitcoin a ‘game’ currency?
In an interview Wednesday with CNBC, one of the world’s most successful investors known as the “Oracle of Omaha” seized the opportunity to take another shot at bitcointhis time calling it a “game token”.
“#Bitcoin it is a game token and has no intrinsic value. But that doesn’t stop people from wanting to play roulette,” says Warren Buffett in #crypto. pic.twitter.com/6MQAiyrS5J
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 12, 2023
Buffett made the following observation in reference to gambling in general:
“The need to participate in something that seems like easy money is a human instinct that has always been present.”
The Berkshire Hathaway big boss previously referred to the popular cryptocurrency as “rat poison squared” and declared it a “mirage” that attracts charlatans. Additionally, he has warned investors to stay away from cryptocurrency, describing it as a “hoax.”
The criticism of Bitcoin that stems from the business mogul’s idea that investments should have some sort of inherent value This is where the criticism originates.
The anti-crypto billionaire views these types of digital assets as speculative that are vulnerable to drastic price swings and have no fundamental value.
Buffett is not a fan of Bitcoin
The last few weeks have seen significant gains across the board for the crypto markets. According to Messari, Bitcoin and Ethereum have had respective gains of 61% and 35%, although they are still roughly 56% and 36% below their all-time highs, which were reached in November 2021.
On Tuesday, the price of BTC broke above $30,000 for the first time. The last time this happened was in June. Two days later, it was still about $29,900 at the time.
It is common knowledge that Buffett is not a fan of bitcoin; in fact, he previously stated that even if someone offered him $25 for all the bitcoin (BTC) in the world, he wouldn’t buy it.
His senior deputy and vice president at Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, has been even more vocal over the years about his distaste for the alpha coin. Earlier this year, he called for the US government to ban cryptocurrencies in a similar way to China.
According to Buffett, the human propensity to gamble is one of the factors driving investment in cryptocurrencies. He claimed that committing funds to the asset class will “eat up” one’s financial resources.
Bitcoin (BTC) total market cap currently at $582 billion on the daily chart at TradingView.com
Bitcoin is up almost 8% in the last week
Several influential people have expressed reservations regarding bitcoin. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, gave an interview to CNBC in January during which he called bitcoin an “overblown fraud” and likened it to a “pet rock.”
Berkshire Hathaway it is now ranked as having the eighth largest market capitalization in the world in terms of its assets, as reported by the latest information from Companiesmarketcap.com.
According to the same source, the market value of Bitcoin is currently the 10th largest in the world.
At the time of writing this article, BTC is trading at $30,104up 7.7% in the past seven days, data from crypto market tracker CoinMarketCap shows.
-Featured image of PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES/FORTUNE/TIME INC.
