Billionaire compares crypto to ‘venereal disease’
Charlie Munger, the longtime business partner of Warren Buffett, has ripped cryptocurrencies, likening them to a sexually transmitted disease. In a comment that went viral, the veteran investor also called for virtual currencies to be banned.
“I certainly didn’t invest in crypto. I’m proud of the fact I’ve avoided it. It’s like a venereal disease or something. I just regard it as beneath contempt,” Munger said at a shareholder’s Q&A session at the annual meeting for LA-based newspaper company, Daily Journal Corp, where he serves as chairman.
The 98-year-old billionaire investor added that he “admire[s] the Chinese for banning it.”
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, comes months after Berkshire Hathaway bought $1 billion worth of stock in a digital bank that focuses on crypto. The SEC filing submitted earlier this week confirmed the holding’s crypto investments into Nubank, a digital bank based in Brazil.
Last December, Nubank raised $2.6 billion in its New York IPO, valuing the fintech firm at over $40 billion.
Munger and Buffett have been long-standing critics of cryptocurrencies. Buffett has previously derided Bitcoin for being an asset that “does not create anything,” calling it “rat poison” and saying that crypto is nothing more than a “delusion that attracts charlatans.”
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