American billionaire investor Warren Buffett has previously criticized cryptocurrencies, but his multinational conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns part of a bank that offers cryptocurrency swapping.
Berkshire Hathaway invested $1 billion in Nubank, a Brazilian fintech firm, in 2021. Last week, Nubank introduced a Bitcoin-to-USDC two-way swap feature that enables Nubank customers to directly exchange Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, or Uniswap for the stable coin USDC, which is tied to the US dollar.
“Swap is in demand by customers as they start including crypto assets in their strategies,” Thomaz Fortes, executive director of cryptocurrencies and digital assets at Nubank, said in a statement issued on November 12. “The initial implementation involving USDC and the four most popular cryptos is a way to ensure potential profits from value appreciation without losing market position and with a lower fee compared to selling for value in reais.”
Despite his company’s investment in Nubank, 94-year-old Buffett, who is one of the richest man in the world, has previously raised concerns about cryptocurrencies.
Taylor Hill/GETTY
“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” back in January 2018. “When it happens or how or anything else, I don’t know. If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I’d be glad to do it but I would never short a dime’s worth.”
Later that year, he said Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, was “probably rat poison squared.”
Newsweek has contacted Berkshire Hathaway for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
Earlier this year, Buffett was the subject of a fake Fox News video in which he appeared to be promoting a Bitcoin website, which the broadcaster and representatives for Buffett confirmed was synthetic.
While Buffett has previously derided the cryptocurrency world, during his campaign for the White House, President-elect Donald Trump embraced the sector when he announced he would make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and signaled the establishment of a national Bitcoin reserve. He also announced the launch of his own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, in September this year.
Following his win on November 5, traditional currency and cryptocurrency markets, individual stocks, and the broader U.S. equity markets have all been boosted as investors anticipate deregulation and tax cuts under a second Trump term.
Bitcoin is one of those beneficiaries, having surpassed silver to become the world’s eighth-most valued asset with a market value of about $1.7 trillion following the election.