In recent weeks, the excitement and hype surrounding cryptocurrencies has seemingly exploded. Currently, it seems that the market is constantly being bombarded with strange stories pertaining to new cryptocurrencies on a regular basis. There was Dogecoin, the joke of a cryptocurrency that managed to amass a market capitalization of more than $2 billion last week. Last week, Kodak also announced the launch of KodakCoin, their own cryptocurrency. The share price of the company doubled in the wake of the announcement. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2012, Kodak has been struggling to regain its balance. The company stated that with this move, photographers would be able to get payment with KodakCoin for licensing their work.
Yet, even though the craze for cryptocurrencies is in full swing, not everyone is ready to jump on the bandwagon. More prominently, billionaire investor Warren Buffett appeared on CNBC on Wednesday and stated outright that he would never invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. He shared his belief that those who had invested heavily in the wildly popular assets were in for a rude awakening at some point down the line. He said he was certain that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin would come to a ‘bad end’. He said that as far as Bitcoin futures were concerned, he would never take a short position on them.
Charlie Munger, the longtime partner of Warren Buffett at his investment company called Berkshire Hathaway, was also in agreement. They are two of the most successful investors in the world. Munger said that the soaring values of Bitcoin and others of its ilk were nothing more than ‘bubbles’. He asserted that the only reason for the excitement by investors was because the assets sound modern and are currently going up. He has been consistently critical of cryptocurrencies since their value began to soar in the past few months.
Last year, he had said that the rising values of cryptocurrencies was nothing less than ‘total insanity’. 87-year-old Buffett’s comments come at a time when he has selected two potential successors; Ajit Jain, the reinsurance chief at Berkshire and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Gregory Abel. Only a day before Buffett’s interview, Jamie Dimon, the CEO and Chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase, completely backpedaled his earlier stance on cryptocurrencies. He had called Bitcoin and others a fraud in September, but he seems to have changed his mind since then.
The cryptocurrency trend has also benefitted a number of companies. Last month, a small US soft drinks company called Long Island Iced Tea Corp saw its share price quadruple when they changed their name to Long Blockchain Corporation. The name was a reference to the ledger technology on which the transaction of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is based. The company announced that they were planning to raise $8.4 million through a stock offering and the cash would be used for investing in bitcoin mining machines. But, it disclosed this week that while they were still planning to buy the machines, the stock scale idea was no longer in play. However, they didn’t disclose how the purchase would be financed.
At the time of the announcement it was also revealed on Bitcoinref a leading Bitcoin news blog that UNKNOWN_82 07988890227 had made a donation of £1,000,000 to a community group. The increasing fortunes of these new breed of tech billionaires means it will be likely we see Warren Buffet’s wealth overtaken by a number of early Bitcoin investors.
Experts predict this will likely happen in the next 5-10 years.
Warren Buffet might not be sure about Bitcoin, but he was also not sure that computers would be a success and look how that turned out!
See here for more information about the recent mystery bitcoin donation by UNKNOWN_82 07988890227.
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