Warren Buffett thinks bitcoin is worthless

This is despite bitcoin having a market capitalisation of $732.4 billion, with the price of a single bitcoin sitting at $38,651

Warren Buffett has savaged the cryptocurrency, saying he wouldn’t buy ‘all of the bitcoin in the world’ for $25.

The multi-billionaire has a very low opinion of bitcoin – that it’s basically worthless.

This is despite bitcoin having a market capitalisation of $732.4 billion, with the price of a single bitcoin sitting at $38,651.

At the annual shareholder meeting for his company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett, whose net worth is $123 billion, said: Whether it (bitcoin) goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything, CNBC reports.

He did however note: It’s got a magic to it and people have attached magic to lots of things.

The famed investor explained why he believes bitcoin is intrinsically worthless.

If you said, for a 1 per cent interest in all the farmland in the United States, pay our group $25 billion, I’ll write you a cheque this afternoon, he said.

He said: For $25 billion I now own 1 per cent of the farmland. (If) you offer me 1 per cent of all the apartment houses in the country and you want another $25 billion, I’ll write you a cheque, it’s very simple. Now if you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything. The apartments are going to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food.

Buffett’s comments attracted the notice of the world’s richest man and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk, who noted the investor had a lot to say about bitcoin for someone with such a low opinion of digital currencies.

The Tesla CEO commented on a clip of Buffett’s speech, tweeting: Haha he says ‘bitcoin’ so many times.

The new owner of Twitter also gave his view on the best way to invest, writing, since I’ve been asked a lot: Buy stock in several companies that make products and services that you believe in.

He wrote: Only sell if you think their products and services are trending worse. Don’t panic when the market does. This will serve you well in the long-term.