Why didn't Warren Buffett invest in Bitcoin?

[Xester]

To the surprise of nobody, Warren Buffett isn’t interested in Bitcoin at all.
Warren’s strategy is to have an adequate but consistent return over a long period of time.
The key is that he knows he will be rich someday, but he is not in a hurry.
In cryptocurrency world, it is not possible to make a position and forget it for x number of years. Hence, it does not fit Warren’s style.
So what is your opinion?

Before we ask why is Warren Buffet did not want to invest in bitcoin let us examine who is really Warren Buffet. According to Wikipedia Warren Buffet is is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist who serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$82.9 billion as of February 17, 2018, making him the third wealthiest person in the world. In addition Buffet is also the biggest shareholder of Hathaway since 1970 and the media is calling him oracle , sage, wizard due to his success and immense wealth.

So now after looking at his background, we can infer that Buffet have been successful all of his life using traditional business and this is the main reason why he thought that bitcoin was useless. If you are already making that huge amount of money I guess it is normal that you are confident on your field and will not mind bitcoin.

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[rodel caling]

Warren Buffet prefers investing in businesses that are doing something and returning profit for him. he is not a trader either. additionally new technologies for an 80 year old guy who has lived his whole life differently is not something interesting, instead it is scary.

and by the way how the hell do you know whether he has invested in bitcoin or not? for all you know, he may be the biggest whale in bitcoin.

Yes i think you have a point buffet are one of the biggest whales in bitcoin, the reason why i observe if warren buffet are interested in bitcoin or in the whole virtual crypto currency why he's always involve in the bitcoin discussion.

[odolvlobo]

I think the main reason is that Buffet is a buisnessmen with an "old school" approach. ...

There is no "old school" approach to investing. Other than Modern Portfolio Theory, investing is basically the same now as it was before your great great grandmother was born, and I doubt you are referring to Modern Portfolio Theory.

My guess is that you consider speculation to be "new school" investing, but people have been speculating for as long as they have been trading.

[_AlexX]

Why do you not invest into a cole mining company? (I assume now you didn't).
I think he is just too old to adopt to new things and something like cryptocurrency would shake his entire understanding of how the economy and money works.

why would he want to believe in it in his old days?

i have a lot of respect for this man. Do not get this wrong.

[hatshepsut93]

To the surprise of nobody, Warren Buffett isn’t interested in Bitcoin at all.
Warren’s strategy is to have an adequate but consistent return over a long period of time.
The key is that he knows he will be rich someday, but he is not in a hurry.
In cryptocurrency world, it is not possible to make a position and forget it for x number of years. Hence, it does not fit Warren’s style.
So what is your opinion?

What do you mean "he will be rich someday"? He is already crazy rich, so he doesn't need to take any risks at the end of his life to become even more richer, maybe he wants to be remembered as the man who never suffered a major lose, and avoiding big risks can be a good way to do so. Also, he doesn't bother to learn more about the technology of Bitcoin, he saw explosive market and immediately proclaimed it a bubble, just like many other economists and investors - but ultimately it doesn't matter, because Bitcoin will be judged for its capabilities - it's not some commodity like gold or oil that are the same as they were 1000 years ago, Bitcoin is ever-evolving software and a giant community of users.

[mummybtc]

For me I don't think he understand Bitcoin, and it is possible that those advising him on what to invest into don't understand it, it took me 3years to graps what give Bitcoin value and this is the main challenge most people have, why do I need to pay this much for a computer currency. He is not the first to come out amd have negative option of BTC and won't be the last.

[darkangel11]

Why do we care about whether he invests or not. If you take a look at a typical crypto exchange, where people who know something about cryptocurrencies gather to buy some, you'll notice that many of them don't own BTC and don't even want to own it. They are interested in other coins. So among the crypto enthusiasts many choose not to won BTC. So why should Waren buy it? He doesn't understand it, he's not interested in risky gains, he doesn't believe in it and has a lot of money already. If I were him I'd also ignore it.

[daarul50]

I think Warren Buffet just does not want to take too much risk because his main goal is to get rich while if he invests bitcoin then chances are there are only two choices of being rich and being poor. He does not want to take the chances that his chances are 50:50. I would also think the same with him if my main goal is the same as him, but in this bitcoin I enjoy and contribute to the blockchain technology ecosystem that bitcoin uses so this technology is not extinct and hope that someday this technology can be accepted and used by all countries as a solution to the problems of world economy.

[darkangel11]

For me I don't think he understand Bitcoin, and it is possible that those advising him on what to invest into don't understand it, it took me 3years to graps what give Bitcoin value and this is the main challenge most people have, why do I need to pay this much for a computer currency. He is not the first to come out amd have negative option of BTC and won't be the last.

No, he doesn't. The main proof is that he doesn't invest in the Internet at all, so he's not a tech guy, he doesn't want innovations. He's interested in banking and financial institutions. For instance one of his greatest investment is American Express, which has nothing to do with BTC and would surely lose value if cryptocurrencies started to dominate over fiat money.
A fun fact is that he sends a lot of money to the Gates foundation and Gates used to own BTC, but suddenly became a critic in the last couple months

[onemoretime8520]

Waren Buffet has the wealth to live for the other 5 generations of him firstly and he doesn`t need money anymore and secondly where do we know that he has not invested in bitcoin or other cryptos ?

[MisterStylish]

He also doesn't invest in gold. Buffett's philosophy is based around generating earnings. He likes to buy securities that work to generate more earnings. No matter how large crypto gets, it will never replace equity and debt, which is fine. A company could potential aim to earn bitcoin instead of fiat if they wish. The notion that crypto will take down wall street is completely incorrect. Yes, it may restructure with its technology, but equity and debt will continue to exist. Buffet says he's ideal position has a holding period of forever. Equity seems more likely to continue forever than crypto, although I think they both will.

[SPQR_Legionnaire]

Because he's smart and doesn't invest in things he doesn't understand.

He doesn't understand technology and avoids it entirely.

[drlederman]

First you need to know how to turn on a computer.

[a4techer]

For me I don't think he understand Bitcoin

He really don't understand any single word from bitcoin and the word itself either. But as a well known and very popular guy who has made money through his genius ideas and strategies, people will listen to him. If he says that a simple rock is profitable it will have its value because he declared it. He don't trust digital assets and he has a lot of bad talks about it. But I have doubt that he will remain as is with his view on bitcoin, I'll get my haircut if WB decided to eat his words and becomes bullish in bitcoin.

[squallw]

Because he is on the banker/government side and he is old also.
I guess that he is very conservative and he isn't able to understand about new technologies like blockchain and bitcoin.
So old people that can't understand crypto's world is usually against bitcoin and almost all of them thinks that this is bubble like dotcom or tulips.

It has nothing to do with age. There are plenty of young people that can't understand crypto's world and are against bitcoin and think that this is a bubble like dotcom or tulips.

Yeah i can't generalize but i mean that almost all old people tends to be fool at new technologies.
Some young people can't understand cryptos and some old grandpa may buy bitcoin.
But the question at topic is 'why Warren Buffett...' i just answered that we can clearly notice that he is against cryptos.

[@Hakermania@]

Warren Buffet believes that cryptocurrencies are a scam. His investments have always been on companies that then over time have grown exponentially. In my opinion, he's a finance magician who, however, no longer wants to update and modernize. Here are the reasons for this position on cryptocurrencies.

[Nilda]

Maybe he is too old for this cryptocurrency stuff. Maybe he already has enough money. Or maybe it’s his personal choice. Whatever his reason/s are? It didn’t affect the way most people here view bitcoins.

[pat4cryptoreal]

I do not expect every body in the world to embrace bitcoin at this stage no matter the level of the persons financial, social and academic exposure. There is no human that is satisfy with money, we will always want more. He will invest in bitcoin when there is no alternative and when there is general acceptance of bitcoin.

[TRAID]

Because he's an old school investor who doesn't understand new revolutionary technologies. Plus, blockchain can potentially ruin everything he has built so it makes sense to fight against it.

[onnz423]

Warren buffet doesn't need to invest in bitcoin, when you are the king of gold, why care about silver? He's a billionaire, he doesn't need to try his hand at risky investments as part of some sort of get rich quick scheme, he is already rich. Again, when you are a billionaire, why would you support the very system that threatens to ruin your holdings?