“I’m not proud of my country” for allowing “crypto sh-t”
Legendary investor Charlie Munger pulled no punches when it came to offering his latest anti-cryptocurrency views on Wednesday.
In Munger’s view, traditional currencies have helped turn man “from a successful ape into a [successful] human,” he said during the Daily Journal’s shareholder meeting in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Munger said claims that cryptocurrencies can replace national currencies is like saying air can be replaced.
“It’s not even a little bit stupid, it’s hugely stupid, and of course it’s very dangerous, and of course the government was completely wrong to allow it,” Munger told CNBC’s Becky Quick during a live broadcast of the event.
“And of course I’m not proud of my country for allowing this crap – well, I call it crypto crap. It’s worthless, it’s crazy, it’s not good, it will do nothing but harm, it’s antisocial to allow it .”
“I think people who oppose my position are idiots,” the 99-year-old Munger said when asked about his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for a ban on the asset class. “And so I don’t think that’s a rational argument against my position.”
Munger, who has drawn criticism for praising the Chinese government in the past, said the nation’s leaders were right not to allow cryptocurrencies. The People’s Bank of China banned all cryptocurrency transactions in September 2021.
“You should be able to say a lot of questions: how big should the social safety net be? It’s a place where reasonable opinions can disagree, and you should be able to make the other side’s case about it as well as the case. you believe in,” Munger said .
“But when you’re dealing with something as horrible as crypto crap, it’s just indescribable,” he added. “I’m ashamed of my country that so many people believe this kind of crap and the government allows it to exist.”
In recent years, Munger has called crypto a type of “venereal disease” and once referred to Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared.”
Munger’s comments on Wednesday come after the collapse of FTX, formerly one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world before founder Sam Bankman-Fried was accused of defrauding investors, among other crypto scandals that emerged in 2022.
Digital asset values have plunged over the past year after reaching all-time highs reached in 2021, as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike campaign prompted investors to steer clear of speculative pockets of the market.
As of Wednesday, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization was around $1.07 trillion, down from the record north of $2.7 trillion reached in November 2021.
In 2023, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and Ethereum (ETH-USD) have rebounded strongly along with other risk assets and are up roughly 40% and 35% respectively so far this year.
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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