Warren Buffett Invests in Crypto-Friendly Bank
Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by Warren Buffett, recently made an investment worth $1 billion in a Brazilian neobank, which is known for its crypto-friendly stance. The company made this investment while it dumped Visa shares that were valued at $1.8 billion and MasterCard shares that had a value of $1.3 billion. Now, the crypto industry has been left speculating if the renowned investor may be changing his stance against the idea of cryptocurrencies. After all, the investor has made his dislike for cryptocurrencies pretty clear. The purchase of Class A Stock of the Brazilian neobankNuBank has certainly got the rumors mills fired up.
There are a number of people part of the crypto sector who have spent a lot of time in trying to convince the legendary investor about the potential of cryptocurrencies. However, Warren Buffett had not warmed up to the digital currencies at all. Now, Berkshire Hathaway made a filing with the US SEC on February 14thin which it disclosed that it had dumped MasterCard stock worth $1.3 billion. The company also went ahead and sold off its Visa shares. After selling off these investments, the company then decided to invest $1 billion in Nubank shares.
This news has been considered very intriguing because the bank, which is based in Latin America, is quite well-known for having a crypto-friendly approach. As a matter of fact, the bank had gained a lot of recognition since it was offering people a Bitcoin ETF. Obviously, this move by Berkshire Hathaway comes as a major surprise because Buffett has been very upfront about his criticism of Bitcoin, the pioneer cryptocurrency, and the crypto space in general. As a matter of fact, the investor has gone as far as calling cryptocurrencies as ‘rat poison squared’. This statement had not been well-received by many in the crypto industry.
There were also those who had taken it upon themselves to convince Buffett that he was wrong about cryptocurrencies and to give them a chance. One of them was Justin Sun, who had made a bid of $4.6 million to win a dinner with Warren Buffett. Nevertheless, the billionaire investor had shown no signs of changing his mind up until now. One of the reasons that could have pushed the investor into changing his opinion could be the easing seen in the Ukraine-Russia tensions. News of the conflict had put markets under a great deal of stress.
However, the reports of easing brought a reversal and Bitcoin’s price went up by nearly 4.4%. In addition, the total market capitalization of Bitcoin also rose to reach the $2 trillion mark briefly. It should also be noted that other than this current investment in Nubank, Buffett’s company had also made an investment worth $500 million last year in the parent company of the bank, Nu Pagamentos SA. But, Berkshire Hathaway had made this move in 2021 before the company had gone public. Regardless, the recent investment by the company is certainly of interest and has people taking a keen interest.
