Crypto Like a ‘Venereal Disease’ Spouts Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chair Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger blasted cryptocurrencies during a Q&A session at the Daily Journal annual meeting. The billionaire who is often referred to as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man referred to crypto as a venereal disease.

When asked if he missed anything on the $2 trillion digital currency market, Munger stated that he “certainly didn’t invest in crypto. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve avoided it.”

The billionaire said that people count on a currency that’s used in “extortions, kidnappings, and tax evasion.” The 98-year-old wishes that cryptocurrencies were “banned immediately.”

He also appreciated the communist Chinese government for forbidding it; “I think they were right and we’ve been wrong to allow [crypto].”

On Jan 20, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) published a report about a U.S. dollar-pegged central bank digital currency, also called CBDC. The report noted the good and risky points of having a CBDC for the national economy. Munger, however, says that “we’ve got a digital currency already, it’s called a bank account.”

“The banks are all integrated with [the] Federal Reserve system,” he added.

According to Munger, a government shouldn’t want “an ideal untraceable technology to come into the payment system.” He says that cryptocurrencies are created by people who want to get rich quickly and of course, he “hate[s] it.”

Last May, Warren Buffet verbally attacked special-purpose acquisition companies and a stock and crypto trading app called Robinhood, saying that they “encourage gambling.” The Robinhood Co-founder, Vlad Tenev, got back to him saying, “people are tired of the Warren Buffetts and Charlie Mungers of the world, acting like they’re the only oracles of investing.”

In response to that, Munger said, “it isn’t good to have a lot of people trying to get easy money for sure, just from gambling.” 

Munger added that he and his friend Buffett “understand it and we know it isn’t good for our republic and we can’t do much about it so we spend our time on the matters we can do something about.”