Crypto is “an open sewer”
Berkshire Hathaway’s billionaire deputy Charlie Munger renewed his sharp criticism of the cryptocurrency sector – calling the industry a “sewer” full of bad players selling digital coins that lack real value.
Munger, one of the financial world’s most vocal critics of cryptocurrencies, described “crypto-mania” as a “mass fool” during an interview published on Tuesday.
“I avoid it as if it were an open sewer, full of malicious organisms,” Munger said in an interview with the Australian Financial Review. “I just avoid and recommend everyone else to follow my example.”
Munger continued his statement in the interview, calling crypto an “investment in nothing” that investors had to be “almost crazy” to assess.
“I think everyone who sells this is either delusional or evil. I do not want to touch the crypto,” Munger said. “I am not interested in undermining the national currencies of the world.”
Munger, the 98-year-old right-hand man of Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett, has never held back his contempt for the burgeoning sector.
Earlier this year, Munger compared the digital symbols to a “sexually transmitted disease” that he was happy to avoid.
“I just see it as contempt,” Munger said. “Some people think it’s modernity, and they want a currency that is useful in extortion and kidnappings and so on and so forth, welcome to tax evasion.”
Munger, who has an estimated personal fortune of $ 2.2 billion, according to Forbes, has also referred to cryptocurrency as “rat poison” and “contrary to the interests of civilization” in recent times, claiming that it facilitates criminal activity.
His last warning came when bitcoin and other tokens plunged to their lowest level in many years as investors prepared for a possible recession.
Bitcoin fell almost 3% to $ 19,734 on Tuesday morning and is down more than 70% from the highest level of $ 69,000 in November last year. The downward spiral has led to a wave of layoffs among prominent cryptocurrency firms and fears of a liquidity crisis in the industry.
A recent survey found that 60% of investors expect bitcoin to fall to $ 10,000 in the coming days, compared to 40% who estimate a decline to $ 30,000.
