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Genesis Mining, a popular cloud mining company based out of Iceland, put out some billboards outside Warren Buffett’s office this past week in support of bitcoin and telling the ace investor that like he was wrong about Google and Amazon, he might be wrong about bitcoin too.
The legendary investor had earlier this month said buyers of bitcoin, whom he called “rat poison squared”, thrive on the hope they will find someone else who will pay more for it.
Likening bitcoin demand to tulip mania in 17th century Holland, Buffett said it was the mystique behind the cryptocurrency which cause such a huge surge in its price.
Bitcoin price hovered around $8,500 on Friday, falling from around $19,000 level, where it traded in December last year.
Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are non-productive assets similar to gold.
So anyone buying it is betting that someone else will pay more for it later.
Berkshire Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger said buying bitcoin with the hope that someone else will outbid you later is a bad business.
Talking about Amazon and Google at Berkshire’s annual general meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett said, "I made the wrong decision on Google and Amazon.”
“We've certainly looked that them the truth is, I've watched Amazon from the start and what Jeff Bezos has done is something close to a miracle.
If I think something is a miracle, I tend not to bet on it.
Bill Gates told me early on (to look at) Google,” he said.
"I'll miss a lot of things that I don’t feel I understand well enough, and there is no penalty in investing if you don’t swing at a ball that’s in the strike zone, as long as you swing at something at some point We’ll try to stay within our circle of competence, and Charlie and I generally agree on where that circle ends We'll try to stay within our circle of competence We're going to miss a lot of things."
