Warren Buffett has once again been considered the ultimate cryptocurrency skeptic after rich dad poor dad Author Robert Kiyosaki used a lengthy post on Nov. 17 to challenge the Berkshire Hathaway chairman’s view that Bitcoin (BTC) is mere speculation rather than a real investment, a stance he has held since at least 2018, when he called Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared” and later said he “wouldn’t buy all the bitcoin in the world” for $25.
“WARREN BUFFET destroys BITCOIN,” Kiyosaki wrote, adding that Buffett “destroys Bitcoin by saying it’s not an investment… it’s speculation… i.e. gambling. He’s saying one uppercut will wipe out Bitcoiners. And from his worldly point of view, he may be right.”
Buffett has repeatedly argued that Bitcoin “produces nothing,” comparing it to productive assets like businesses and farms that generate cash flow.
Kiyosaki compared Buffett’s stance to risks in traditional markets and asked:
“Doesn’t the World Bank know that stocks and real estate are plummeting and that US government bonds, the ‘safest’ investments in the world, are currently being ‘abandoned’ by the central banks of Japan and China?”
Kiyosaki also pointed out what he considers a contradiction: that Berkshire Hathaway has gained crypto exposure indirectly through investments in companies like Nu Holdings and Jefferies, companies that operate in or alongside the digital asset space.
He said he owns “gold mines, gold and silver coins for the same reason I own Bitcoin and Ethereum,” arguing: “My reason is: I don’t trust the Federal Reserve Bank, the US Treasury or Wall Street. Apparently Buffet does. I think they’re tight.”
Reiterating his long-standing framework, Kiyosaki wrote: “I classify real gold and silver as ‘God’s money.’ I classify Bitcoin, Ethereum, and cryptocurrencies as ‘people’s money.’ I classify money from the Federal Reserve, the US government, and Wall Street as ‘fake money.'”
Related: ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Author Warns About ‘The Large Print’ as ‘Fake Money Collapses’
He added that he invests in Bitcoin and Ether “knowing that they can boom and bust, because neither the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury nor Buffett can produce Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.”
Kiyosaki also took aim at ETFs and real estate investment trusts (REITs), saying: “I will never invest in gold, silver or Bitcoin ETFs… Fake gold, silver and Bitcoin… Wall Street or Buffer money.”
“ETFs and REITs are right up there with stocks, bonds, mutual funds… printed money… aka ‘fake money,’” he wrote, arguing that “Marxist school systems” fail to teach people real financial literacy and repeating his previous line that “savers are losers” with “’infinitely printed’ fake money.”