The End Of An Era: How Buffett's $1 Trillion Legacy Was Built On Everything Bitcoin Is Not

At 94 years old, Warren Buffett is stepping away from day-to-day operations at Berkshire Hathaway this Wednesday, handing the CEO role to Greg Abel while remaining as chairman. The transition marks the conclusion of six decades steering a $1 trillion conglomerate—but it also crystallizes a philosophical divide that has defined Buffett’s later years: his unwavering skepticism toward digital assets like Bitcoin.

A Blueprint For Value That Excludes Cryptocurrencies

Buffett’s investment empire was constructed on a single foundational principle: assets must generate tangible returns. Farmland produces crops. Apartment buildings collect rent. Businesses generate earnings. This doctrine stands in direct opposition to how Buffett views cryptocurrency.

During Berkshire’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting, the Oracle of Omaha drove this point home with characteristic bluntness. When discussing a hypothetical scenario where someone offered him every Bitcoin in existence, his answer was unambiguous: “If you told me you owned all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything.”

He expanded on this perspective by holding up a $20 bill: “Assets, to have value, have to deliver something to somebody. And there’s only one currency that’s accepted. You can come up with all kinds of things—we can put up Berkshire coins… but in the end, this is money.”

When Partners Align On Dismissal

Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime business partner and vice chairman, proved equally unsparing in his critique of the cryptocurrency space. At the 2021 shareholder gathering, Munger declared Bitcoin “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.”

His language only intensified over time. In a subsequent Wall Street Journal interview, Munger expressed pride in Berkshire’s decision to steer clear of crypto altogether, calling the entire sector development a descriptor that rhymes with “dird”—a characterization he later elaborated by comparing cryptocurrency promotion to spreading disease. “I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization,” he stated, making his position unmistakably clear.

From Textile Mill To Trillion-Dollar Institution

To understand why Buffett’s skepticism carries such weight, consider the transformation he orchestrated. What began in 1962 as a struggling textile mill, purchased at $7.60 per share, evolved into a diversified holding company whose Class A shares now trade above $750,000 per share. His personal wealth, accumulated almost entirely through Berkshire stock, has reached approximately $150 billion—even after he donated over $60 billion to charitable causes across two decades.

This track record was built not through speculation or novel financial instruments, but through patient capital deployment into productive enterprises. That philosophy has made Buffett’s rejection of Bitcoin especially notable in an era when digital assets have captured mainstream attention.

The Rat Poison Comments That Defined An Age

Buffett’s animosity toward Bitcoin predates his recent retirement. During Berkshire’s 2018 annual meeting in Omaha, as Bitcoin fluctuated around $9,000 after plummeting from nearly $20,000, Buffett told CNBC that the cryptocurrency was “probably rat poison squared”—an escalation of his 2014 characterization of Bitcoin as mere “rat poison.”

These comments, while colorful, reflected a deeper conviction: that an asset lacking intrinsic productivity cannot justify valuation. Where traditional investments anchor themselves to future cash flows and utility, Bitcoin remains divorced from such fundamentals in Buffett’s assessment.

A Philosophical Chasm Unbridged

As Buffett passes operational control to Greg Abel, the retiring CEO’s stance on cryptocurrency stands as one of the clearest distinctions between his era of capital stewardship and whatever comes next. Whether future leadership will maintain this position remains an open question—but Buffett’s six-decade track record suggests that his skepticism toward non-productive assets, digital or otherwise, may have been onto something all along.