If there's one investor who hasn't yet fluctuated one iota when it comes to bitcoin, it's Warren Buffett. He has never hidden his aversion to digital currency despite the buzz surrounding it.
Buffett's verdict on cryptocurrencies is final, some would say. Billionaire, whose investments have been watched by millions for decades, says digital currencies are risky and worthless. He believes these are highly speculative assets.
"Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don't produce anything. They don't reproduce, they can't mail you a check, they can't do anything, and what you hope is that somebody else comes along and pays you more money for them later on, but then that person's got the problem. In terms of value: zero," Buffett told CNBC on February 2020.
He added that: "I don't own bitcoin".
Pressed by journalist Becky Quick, he wanted to be clear: "I don't own any cryptocurrency and I never will," the legendary investor repeated.
Bitcoin Is Like a "Rat Poison"
Two years earlier, he had already delivered the eulogy of the famous cryptocurrency.
"It draws in a lot of charlatans. It's something where people who are of less than stellar character see an opportunity to clip people who are trying to get rich because their neighbor's getting rich buying this stuff that neither one of them understands. It will come to a bad ending", said Buffett during Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) shareholder meeting in 2018.
His friend and right-hand man Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, added a layer of it last week by declaring that bitcoin was "like some venereal disease."
"I just regard it as beneath contempt", asserted Munger, who once called bitcoin “rat poison”, at the Daily Journal's annual shareholder meeting.
Basically, the two iconic investors are not fans of crypto.
However, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has just revealed that he has invested just over $1 billion in Brazilian fintech Nubank - which trades as Nu Holdings- and thus holds more than 107,1 million shares as of December 31, according to its 13F document addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
There is no doubt that the financial services firm is one of the rising companies in Latin America with a presence in Brazil, Mexico and Columbia. But Nubank also has an important particularity: It offers its customers to invest in a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) through Easynvest, a trading platform it purchased in September 2020 and rebranded “Easynvest by Nubank.”
"Does NuInvest work with Cryptocurrency?", Nubank says in Portuguese on its website. "To invest in cryptocurrencies by NuInvest, only through ETFs (index funds), which replicate the behavior of indices backed by these digital assets. Or in investment funds that invest part of their resources in financial assets issued and/or traded abroad."
The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), approved the cryptocurrency ETF back in March 2021, a first in Latin America. The company behind it is QR Capital, and the bitcoin-ETF dubbed QBTC11 is managed by QR Asset Management.
100% Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund
QBTC11 uses CME Group’s bitcoin futures contracts index as a reference to calculate the price of bitcoin, the fund group said on its website.
QBTC 11 started trading on the Sao Paulo-based B3 Exchange last June.
"ETF (exchange-traded fund) is an investment fund that can be traded like a stock on the floor of the stock exchange. Just open the terminal at your preferred broker, search for QBTC11 and invest in the 100% bitcoin ETF simply and easily," the company managing the ETF says on its website in Portuguese.
It added that: "Without worrying about wallets or private keys, QBTC11 allows investors to add 100% bitcoin ETF shares to their wallet through their favorite exchange."
EFTs or exchange-traded funds or Tracker are an index fund or basket of securities trading on the stock exchange. This fund will therefore follow the evolution of a stock market index, both upwards and downwards. In the case of bitcoin ETFs, that asset is bitcoin.
Nubank, which made a big debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 8, is best known for its no-fee credit cards.
TheStreet left a message on a Berkshire Hathaway answering machine but has yet to hear back.
