- Buffett warns of long-term currency debasement, echoing key Bitcoin principles intentionally or not.
- Crypto advocates seize on Buffett’s remarks as indirect validation of decentralized digital assets.
- Despite philosophical overlap, Buffett remains a staunch Bitcoin critic, calling it “rat poison squared.”
Warren Buffett’s farewell tour as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO may have been scripted as a smooth handoff to successor Greg Abel, but it ended with an unexpected twist: a monetary warning that’s being seized by the very cryptocurrency advocates Buffett has long rebuked.
Oracle of Omaha offers a grim warning regarding the future of fiat currency, addresses thousands of shareholders at Omaha’s CHI Health Center. He said the ‘greatest threat to capital’ is a government’s tendency to debase its currency over time. That line, as Bitcoin was never mentioned, rang out practically as a gong on Crypto Twitter.
Buffett Slams Fiat, Still Calls Bitcoin ‘Rat Poison’
Pseudonymous Bitcoin commentator Carl Menger quipped that “this is almost like a decentralized, non-sovereign currency could fix this.” “I still can’t understand the value of Bitcoin and much rather stacks other fiat Shitcoins.”
Buffett the icon of 20th century value investing stumbled into the 21st century digital asset battle for a moment. To many in the crypto community, his critique of fiat currency’s erosion sounded, at times, like an imprudent insistence that BTC had addressed the very premise behind the creation of that new kind of currency.
Buffett wasn’t endorsing anything decentralized at all. Billionaire investor is still unabashedly against BTC, describing it as ‘rat poison squared’ in 2018 and doubling down since at the last shareholder meetings. In 2022, he famously said that Bitcoin wouldn’t do anything. So Saturday gave no hint of a pivot. Despite that, his words bore only too great weight.
Berkshire’s Record Cash Hoard Fuels Bitcoin Debate
During Q1 2025, Berkshire’s cash reserves reached a record $347.7 billion and critics as the MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor sees this as evidence of fiat paralysis, not prudence. According to Saylor, Berkshire is a relic of the past, a ’20th Century Bitcoin.’ His company has continued to aggressively spending corporate funds in the cryptocurrency.
It comes at a key moment, granting philosophical premise to this tug-of-war. With central banks edging back towards rate cuts and inflation concern still hanging over the markets, the Bitcoin crowd contends that stocks, bonds and even cash become unappealing places to park money as investors shift to digital assets. Buffett’s crypto endorsement (if not meant that way) just fanned the flames for them.
However, Buffett’s values more closely match Bitcoin’s fundamental fears than he admits. He sees code as capital or, more precisely, he does not see code as capital. He engages in the business of building, not mining.
Berkshire’s next chapter, however, may be somewhat unique as Greg Abel is set to assume the throne in 2025. Yet for the time being, Buffett’s words keep him on the stage the same, suspicious of digital gold, even as his words assist such currency in surprising ways.
