Billionaire investor Warren Buffett described bitcoin (BTC) as a “gambling token” in a recent press interview. Echoing the dour opinion of the cryptocurrency that he has aired in the past, the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) chairman and CEO said bitcoin “doesn’t have any intrinsic value but that doesn’t stop people from wanting to play the roulette wheel.” Commenting on gambling in general, Buffett said: “The urge to participate in something that looks like easy money is a human instinct which was always there.”
Buffett is well-known to be no fan of bitcoin, having referred to it as “probably rat poison squared” in 2018. His top deputy, Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman Charlie Munger, has been even more outspoken over his disdain for cryptocurrency over the years, calling for the U.S. to copy China and ban it earlier this year.
“It’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity,” Munger wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. “The U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening.”