Billionaire and noted bitcoin critic Charlie Munger took a victory lap Tuesday after FTX’s recent meltdown – blasting cryptocurrencies as a “demented” enterprise rife with “fraud” and delusion.”
When asked about FTX’s collapse out of business, the 98-year-old Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman referred to digital currencies as a “very, very bad thing” ripe for exploitation by bad actors.
“The country didn’t need a currency that’s good for kidnappers and so forth,” Munger said during a Tuesday appearance on CNBC. “There are individuals who think they’ve got to be on every deal that’s hot. They don’t care whether it’s child prostitution or bitcoin. If it’s hot, they wish to be in on it. I believe that it’s totally crazy.”
“Repute could be very helpful in financial life,” Munger added. “To destroy your status by associating with scumballs and scumball promotions is a large mistake.”
FTX and greater than 100 of its affiliates – including cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research – filed for bankruptcy last week after facing a sudden liquidity crunch. In filings released Tuesday, the corporate disclosed it could have a couple of million creditors in its case.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison are under intense scrutiny to clarify what went flawed through the downfall. Reuters reported that Bankman-Fried had “secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds” from FTX to Alameda to prop up its shaky operations.
Munger expanded on his point concerning the industry, noting that he was seeing “numerous delusion” amongst investors within the cryptocurrency sector.
“It’s partly fraud and partly delusion. That’s a foul combination,” Munger said. “I don’t like either fraud or delusion and the delusion could also be more extreme than the fraud.”
“For those who’ve got a very good idea, it’s much easier to push that to wretched access,” Munger added. “Good ideas, carried to wretched excess, develop into bad ideas. No one’s gonna say, ‘I got some s—t that I would like to sell you.’ They are saying – it’s blockchain!’”
Munger, the longtime right-hand man to Warren Buffett, has garnered a status for his colourful remarks about cryptocurrencies lately.
In July, Munger called the “crypto craze” a “mass folly,” adding that he avoids it “as if it were an open sewer, stuffed with malicious organisms.”
Just a few months earlier in February, Munger said digital tokens were like a “venereal disease” that he was blissful to avoid.
“I just regard it as beneath contempt,” Munger said. “Some people think it’s modernity and so they welcome a currency that’s useful in extortions and kidnappings and so forth and so forth, tax evasions.”
Billionaire and noted bitcoin critic Charlie Munger took a victory lap Tuesday after FTX’s recent meltdown – blasting cryptocurrencies as a “demented” enterprise rife with “fraud” and delusion.”
When asked about FTX’s collapse out of business, the 98-year-old Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman referred to digital currencies as a “very, very bad thing” ripe for exploitation by bad actors.
“The country didn’t need a currency that’s good for kidnappers and so forth,” Munger said during a Tuesday appearance on CNBC. “There are individuals who think they’ve got to be on every deal that’s hot. They don’t care whether it’s child prostitution or bitcoin. If it’s hot, they wish to be in on it. I believe that it’s totally crazy.”
“Repute could be very helpful in financial life,” Munger added. “To destroy your status by associating with scumballs and scumball promotions is a large mistake.”
FTX and greater than 100 of its affiliates – including cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research – filed for bankruptcy last week after facing a sudden liquidity crunch. In filings released Tuesday, the corporate disclosed it could have a couple of million creditors in its case.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison are under intense scrutiny to clarify what went flawed through the downfall. Reuters reported that Bankman-Fried had “secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds” from FTX to Alameda to prop up its shaky operations.
Munger expanded on his point concerning the industry, noting that he was seeing “numerous delusion” amongst investors within the cryptocurrency sector.
“It’s partly fraud and partly delusion. That’s a foul combination,” Munger said. “I don’t like either fraud or delusion and the delusion could also be more extreme than the fraud.”
“For those who’ve got a very good idea, it’s much easier to push that to wretched access,” Munger added. “Good ideas, carried to wretched excess, develop into bad ideas. No one’s gonna say, ‘I got some s—t that I would like to sell you.’ They are saying – it’s blockchain!’”
Munger, the longtime right-hand man to Warren Buffett, has garnered a status for his colourful remarks about cryptocurrencies lately.
In July, Munger called the “crypto craze” a “mass folly,” adding that he avoids it “as if it were an open sewer, stuffed with malicious organisms.”
Just a few months earlier in February, Munger said digital tokens were like a “venereal disease” that he was blissful to avoid.
“I just regard it as beneath contempt,” Munger said. “Some people think it’s modernity and so they welcome a currency that’s useful in extortions and kidnappings and so forth and so forth, tax evasions.”
