Warren Buffett Says He Would Not Pay $25 for All Bitcoin in the World at Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

The world’s most celebrated value investor delivered his harshest rebuke of Bitcoin yet on May 1, 2022, as Warren Buffett told attendees at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in Omaha that he would not pay $25 for all the Bitcoin in existence. The remarks, delivered alongside long-time business partner Charlie Munger, reignited the long-running debate about whether cryptocurrencies constitute a legitimate asset class or a speculative bubble waiting to burst.

TL;DR

• Warren Buffett stated he would not pay $25 for all the Bitcoin in the world at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 1, 2022
• Charlie Munger called cryptocurrency “stupid, evil, and something that makes you look bad”
• Buffett argued Bitcoin produces nothing and has no intrinsic value, unlike productive assets
• Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen publicly pushed back against Buffett’s comments
• The criticism came as Bitcoin traded near $38,469, well below its November 2021 all-time high

Buffett’s Case Against Bitcoin

Speaking to thousands of shareholders gathered in Omaha for Berkshire Hathaway’s first in-person annual meeting since the pandemic began, Buffett drew a sharp distinction between Bitcoin and productive assets. His core argument centered on the idea that Bitcoin does not produce anything — no earnings, no dividends, no products, no services. “If the people in this room owned all the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it,” Buffett said, according to multiple reports from the event.

The Oracle of Omaha elaborated that productive assets like farms, apartment buildings, and businesses have inherent value because they deliver tangible returns to their owners. Bitcoin, in his view, relies entirely on finding someone else willing to pay more for it — the classic definition of the greater fool theory. He compared it to the idea that assets must “deliver something to somebody” to have genuine worth.

Munger Doubles Down

Charlie Munger, Buffett’s long-time business partner and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, was characteristically blunt in his assessment. Munger stated that in his life he tries to avoid things that are “stupid, evil, and make you look bad” — placing cryptocurrency firmly in all three categories. Munger has been a consistent and vocal critic of digital assets, previously calling for the United States to follow China’s lead in banning cryptocurrency trading outright.

The nonagenarian investor’s disdain for crypto was not new, but the platform of the Berkshire annual meeting — one of the most watched events in the global financial calendar — gave his remarks outsized reach. Combined with Buffett’s $25 quip, the pair’s joint condemnation became one of the most widely circulated crypto-critical statements of 2022.

Crypto Community Pushes Back

The backlash from the cryptocurrency community was swift and high-profile. Elon Musk, who had established himself as one of Bitcoin’s most prominent proponents before pivoting toward Dogecoin, publicly weighed in on Buffett’s comments. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose firm Andreessen Horowitz had made substantial investments in the crypto space, also responded on social media on May 1.

Bitcoin advocates argued that Buffett’s analysis missed the fundamental value proposition of a decentralized, censorship-resistant store of value that operates outside the traditional financial system. They pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply cap of 21 million coins and its growing adoption by institutions and nation-states as evidence of genuine utility that transcends Buffett’s framework of productive assets.

A Market Under Pressure

The Berkshire meeting took place against a backdrop of significant stress in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin was trading at approximately $38,469 on May 1, down substantially from its all-time high near $69,000 reached in November 2021. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was changing hands at roughly $2,828. The broader market was grappling with the Federal Reserve’s tightening monetary policy, rising interest rates, and growing recession fears that were putting pressure on risk assets across the board.

The timing was particularly pointed: the Terra ecosystem was days away from its catastrophic collapse, an event that would wipe out tens of billions of dollars in market value and validate many of the cautionary sentiments expressed at the Berkshire meeting. In retrospect, Buffett and Munger’s warnings about the speculative nature of the crypto market would prove prescient for many investors who suffered significant losses in the weeks that followed.

Why This Matters

Buffett’s remarks at the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting represent one of the most authoritative institutional criticisms of cryptocurrency ever delivered. Coming from the world’s most successful investor, whose track record spans more than five decades, the comments carried weight far beyond typical market commentary. The episode highlighted the fundamental philosophical divide between traditional value investing — which prizes cash flows, earnings, and productive capacity — and the cryptocurrency ethos of decentralization, scarcity, and technological disruption. With Bitcoin at $38,469 and the broader crypto market facing headwinds from monetary tightening, the debate over intrinsic value versus speculative demand was playing out in real time across financial markets worldwide.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.