If You Invested $1,000 in Bitcoin When Warren Buffett Called It “Rat Poison Squared,” Here’s How Much You’d Have Now

Leading investor Warren Buffett has bought companies he loves and invested in stocks of undervalued companies with strong cash flow. One thing Buffett hasn’t been a fan of in recent years, however, is cryptocurrency.

What happened: Buffett has been an opponent of leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin BTC/USD for years and was even named Bitcoin enemy number one by entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

In January 2018, Buffett warned investors against investing in cryptocurrency.

“When it comes to cryptocurrencies, in general, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad end,” Buffett said at the time. “If I could buy a five-year put on every single one of the cryptocurrencies, I’d be happy to do that, but I’d never be short a penny.”

Buffett, Chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B), took things a step further a few months later in an interview with CNBC.

Repeats Berkshire deputy Charlie Mungerhis thoughts on Bitcoin being “rat poison,” Buffett told the CNBC anchor Becky Quick that the cryptocurrency is “probably rat poison squared”.

Buffett, who is also known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, has said that he would not buy Bitcoin even if it fell to $25.

While the billionaire investor has not bought cryptocurrencies and has continued to speak out against them, he owns shares in a company that has bet on Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies.

As Benzinga previously reported, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are shareholders in the Now Holdings NOW, a Latin American digital bank. Nu Holdings is a crypto-friendly bank that has launched several cryptocurrency products and is committed to allocating a portion of its cash to Bitcoin.

Related link: How to buy Bitcoin

Investment $1000 in Bitcoin: While Buffett said he would not invest in Bitcoin even if it reached $25, some investors have chosen to allocate a portion of their investments or holdings in the leading cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin traded between $9,695.12 and $9,964.50 on May 5, 2018, the day of Buffett’s “rat poison squared” comment.

An investor could have bought 0.1004 BTC at the coin’s high price on the day.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $2,839.73 today based on a price of $28,284.20 for Bitcoin at the time of writing.

This represents a return of 184% since Buffett’s comments.

By comparison, shares of Berkshire Hathaway are up 57.5% over the same time period. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPYwhich tracks the S&P 500 index, is up 53.5% over the same time period.

As investors can see, Bitcoin has outperformed both the S&P 500 and Berkshire Hathaway since Buffett’s now-famous quote about the leading cryptocurrency.

While Buffett has said he wouldn’t touch cryptocurrency even if it reached $25 per coin, investors who bought when the legendary investor made the quote would be glad they did.

Read next: ‘Just say no’ to putting Bitcoin in your retirement account: Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett are still not fans of crypto
Photo: Asa Mathat/ Fortune Live Media via flickr