With a fortune of $106 billion, Warren Buffett is considered the greatest investor in history, and his approach to cryptocurrencies is well known. For more than a decade, he has consistently refused to buy Bitcoin, even during its weakest periods, and it seems that his company’s investments are not quite following his wishes.
Is Buffett’s Berkshire Embracing Crypto?
Known for his skepticism towards Bitcoin, Warren Buffett never hesitates to express his views against the world of cryptocurrency whenever he gets a chance. Buffet, who holds a very negative opinion of cryptocurrencies, was even rejecting Bitcoin purchases when it was at $15,000 levels in 2018.
Buffet stated in 2018 that he could almost certainly say that cryptocurrencies will come to a bad end:
In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad end.
In about five years, the price of Bitcoin has risen to an all-time high of $69,000 but then fell back. As of the day this article was written, Bitcoin has recovered and returned to over $50,000. The market expectation for BTC price is seen to be over $100,000 following this year’s halving.
Nevertheless, Buffett remains insistent on not changing his approach to cryptocurrencies. Even though he clearly states his dislikes, the holding company he leads, Berkshire Hathaway, seems to have adopted a different view.
The institution in question is none other than Nu Holdings. Following an initial investment of $500 million in Latin America’s leading giant digital company Nubank in 2021, it has been revealed that a stake owned by either Buffett or one of his advisors has increased to $1 billion.
The Relationship Between Nu Bank and Bitcoin
Among the many innovative products offered by Nubank, there is Nucripto, launched in 2022, which allows users to trade various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is known that Nucripto had more than one million active users in just its first month.
This situation cannot be explained solely by Nubank’s competitive advantage. It also highlights the potential of Berkshire Hathaway’s investments in digital banking and cryptocurrency services to take the finance sector to a different place day by day.
Although Nubank’s primary market revenue is currently associated with traditional financial products, its foray into the cryptocurrency space positions it differently. Offering services in major cryptocurrencies like Polkadot and Avalanche, as well as the launch of Nucoin, shows how seriously the matter is taken.
It appears that Nubank is not the first investment that contradicts Buffett’s views and financial ideology. For example, it is well known that Buffett has been avoiding technology stocks for over a decade and has an even longer history with banks.
