Warren Buffett’s long-time partner Charlie Munger says he’s ‘not proud of my country’ for allowing crypto to thrive, calling it ‘very dangerous’
Warren Buffett’s long-time partner Charlie Munger says he’s ‘not proud of my country’ for allowing crypto to thrive, calling it ‘very dangerous’BYAzure GilmanFebruary 15, 2023, 11:02 PM UTC
Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.Houston Cofield/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Charlie Munger really doesn’t like crypto. In fact, he’s been speaking out publicly about it for some time. He says he wishes it had never been invented. He says that Bitcoin is “stupid and evil,” and useful to “kidnappers and extortionists.” He compares crypto to “rat poison,” and a “venereal disease.” And he says it’s “almost insane to buy this stuff or trade in it.”
So it’s not necessarily a surprise that Munger, who has a net worth of $2.3 billion and is famous for being the right-hand man of Oracle from Omaha Warren Buffett, has decided to maintain his status as a top crypto skeptic. And he has some additional thoughts to share.
“I am not proud of my country for allowing this crap — well, I call it crypto s***. It’s worthless, it’s no good, it’s crazy, it’ll do nothing but harm, it’s antisocial to allow it,” Munger said during a live-streamed interview with CNBC at an event for the Daily Journal. He went on to say that he was ashamed that so many people “believe in this kind of crap and the government allows it to exist.”
In the past, Munger has gone as far as saying that the U.S. should take a page from China when it comes to regulation—that country banned cryptocurrency in 2021.
“What should the U.S. do after a ban of cryptocurrencies is in place?” he wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. “Well, one more action might make sense: Thank the Chinese communist leader for his splendid example of uncommon sense.”
When asked about that recent op-ed, Munger told CNBC: “I think the people that oppose my position are idiots.”
“I don’t think there is a rational argument against my position,” he added.
Aside from Munger’s long-standing dislike of crypto, the industry itself has had a terrible year. Back-to-back collapses, including the TerraUSD stablecoin, and the FTX exchange, have left it reeling, and at one point the sector was down by $2 trillion in value. One of crypto’s most prominent U.S. founders, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, is currently awaiting trial on fraud charges.
Regulators are also becoming more aggressive about cracking down on crypto firms in the wake of these debacles. This week, the New York Department of Financial Services stopped the crypto firm Paxos from issuing a coin for Binance. And at a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said that the fallout from crypto failures was still ongoing.
“The nightmare isn’t over yet,” he said. “Recent crypto meltdowns have made clear that we need a comprehensive framework to regulate crypto products to protect consumers and our financial system.”
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