Charlie Munger: Everybody Should Avoid Crypto ‘as if It Were an Open Sewer, Full of Malicious Organisms’

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Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, has a message for investors considering cryptocurrency. “Never touch it,” he stressed, adding that everyone should follow his example and avoid crypto “as if it were an open sewer, full of malicious organisms.”

Charlie Munger Reaffirms His Anti-Crypto Stance

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and longtime business partner, threw more insults at cryptocurrency in an interview with The Australian Financial Review, published Tuesday. Munger previously called bitcoin “rat poison” and said last year that he hated the success of BTC.

Noting that the “crypto craze” is a “mass folly,” he told the publication:

I think anybody that sells this stuff is either delusional or evil. I won’t touch the crypto.

The Berkshire executive continued: “I’m not interested in undermining the national currencies of the world.”

Munger was then asked what advice he would give to other investors who may be considering investing in cryptocurrency. “Total avoidance is the correct policy,” he replied, adding:

Never touch it. Never buy it. Let it pass by.

Like Buffett, Munger believes that stocks of real cash-generating companies are better investments. “Stocks have a real interest in real businesses,” he stressed.

In contrast, “Crypto is an investment in nothing, and the guy who’s trying to sell you an investment in nothing says, ‘I have a special kind of nothing that’s difficult to make more of,’” he described.

Munger emphasized: “I don’t want to buy a piece of nothing, even if somebody tells me they can’t make more of it … I regard it as almost insane to buy this stuff or to trade in it.” He elaborated:

I just avoid it as if it were an open sewer, full of malicious organisms. I just totally avoid and recommended everybody else follow my example.

Munger has never been a fan of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies. In February, he said that the government should ban BTC, calling it a “venereal disease.” He has praised China several times in the past for banning crypto, stating that he wished cryptocurrency has never been invented. In May last year, he said that bitcoin was “disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization.”

In May, Munger said: “I try and avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad in comparison to somebody else — and bitcoin does all three.” He added, “It’s stupid because it’s still likely to go to zero.”

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Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.




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