Bitcoin’s reach toward $10,000 over the weekend was once again cut short—falling to $9,300 on Monday.
Deciding exactly what is impacting the price of Bitcoin at any time is no science. Though it certainly didn’t help that billionaires Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Bill Gates have taken turns criticizing the cryptocurrency in recent days.
“I would short it if there was an easy way to do it,” Gates told CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday in an interview alongside Munger and Buffett. It’s likely the most explicitly bearish statement against Bitcoin from the Microsoft founder and Berkshire director. Previously, Gates aired concerns about cryptocurrencies being used to pay for illegal transactions, saying the asset class has “caused deaths in a fairly direct way.”
Gates clarified that though he thought the blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies that is being tested also in diamond-tracking as well as pig-tracking, is promising, “[Initial Coin Offerings] and Bitcoin are not producing anything, it’s kind of a pure greater-fool-theory type investment.”
That interview comes following the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting Saturday, in which both Buffett and Munger doubled down on their distaste for Bitcoin.
Buffett called Bitcoin “rat poison squared,” while Munger said that trading cryptocurrencies is akin to having “dementia.”
Buffett has also sworn that he will never buy cryptocurrencies, saying he does not understand the asset.
Despite Buffett’s investing acumen, the Oracle of Omaha, though, has missed the tech rally—only to voice regret later. Buffett historically rebuffed Internet and technology companies, saying he does not invest in what he does not understand, and that such firms have a limited moat against competition. Now however, Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding is iPhone-maker Apple, with Buffett again admitting Saturday that he made the “wrong decision” regarding Amazon and Google.
Buffett is invested in neither tech giant.