Published: April 12, 2023 at 11:38 a.m. ET
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning, Warren Buffett again shared his thoughts on bitcoin BTCUSD and crypto, comparing the two to gambling he has seen throughout his life.
“I didn’t like chain letters when I was a kid. I thought why in the world should I send along a chain letter? […] I’ve seen people do stupid things all my life. And I really, I empathize with that. I mean, people like to play the lottery […] people love the idea that they’re going to make more money tomorrow,” said Buffett to CNBC’s…
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning, Warren Buffett again shared his thoughts on bitcoin
BTCUSD
and crypto, comparing the two to gambling he has seen throughout his life.
“I didn’t like chain letters when I was a kid. I thought why in the world should I send along a chain letter? […] I’ve seen people do stupid things all my life. And I really, I empathize with that. I mean, people like to play the lottery […] people love the idea that they’re going to make more money tomorrow,” said Buffett to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Though Buffett has expressed this view before, what was surprising about Wednesday’s interview is he doubled down on it despite bitcoin’s recent rally. CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him when, exactly, bitcoin will become “not a thing,” though bitcoin has now existed for 15 years, and is rallying above $30,000 on Tuesday, and some industry experts have looked at it as a safe haven for investing compared to other options.
Buffett compared crypto to witnessing people gambling when he was on his honeymoon in the 1950s in Las Vegas.
“I looked at all these people, who had flown thousands of miles to do something that [was] unintelligent as fast as they could,” said Buffett. “They thought the dice were hot or something like that. And I thought, I’m going to get rich in this country, I mean, if that’s what people do. I can be smarter than that.”
Buffett added that it drives people crazy to see their next door neighbor making more money than them.
“It really drives them crazy if their next door neighbor is making more money not knowing what they’re doing and they’re just sitting there and their spouse is saying ‘why is that guy getting a second car and why are we missing this whole thing?’ the gambling instinct is so strong,” said Buffet.
Bitcoin is trading at $30, 217 on Wednesday morning, down 0.10% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. The token is still far from its peak of $65,000 in November 2021.
