{"id":57930,"date":"2022-02-17T09:52:07","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T07:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=57930"},"modified":"2025-09-04T14:12:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:12:49","slug":"charles-munger-likens-cryptocurrencies-to-a-disease-and-praises-china-for-its-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/charles-munger-likens-cryptocurrencies-to-a-disease-and-praises-china-for-its-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Munger likens cryptocurrencies to a &#8216;disease&#8217; and praises China for its ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway&#8217;s board, said that cryptocurrencies are used in illicit activity and should be banned. He said he is &#8216;proud&#8217; to have avoided investing in digital assets. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Charlie Munger speaks at the Daily Journal annual meeting\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8RxLj9OVqLo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I, of course, did not invest in cryptocurrencies and I am proud to have avoided this. This is like a venereal disease,&#8221; Munger said at the Daily Journal Corporation conference.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the billionaire, Bitcoin and other digital assets are used by ransomware operators, hackers, terrorists and other criminals, as well as those seeking to evade taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Munger noted that U.S. authorities should &#8220;immediately&#8221; ban cryptocurrencies. He stressed that he &#8220;admired&#8221; China, which <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/media-chinese-investors-have-not-abandoned-bitcoin-after-tougher-regulation\">has spoken out against<\/a> the industry. In his view, the United States has &#8220;erred&#8221; in allowing digital-asset operations on its soil.<\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk responded to the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman&#8217;s criticism. He recalled that in 2009 Munger publicly stated that Tesla would fail. Tesla is now the most valuable automotive company in the world, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/finance\/quote\/TSLA:NASDAQ?sa=X&#038;ved=2ahUKEwi-7MvTkob2AhWUvIsKHToVDeAQ3ecFegQIGRAc\">market capitalization<\/a> of more than $950 billion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was at a lunch with Munger in 2009 where he told the whole table all the ways Tesla would fail. <\/p>\n<p>Made me quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those reasons &#038; that we would probably die, but it was worth trying anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1494065800482902030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I was at a lunch with Munger in 2009, and he told the whole table all the reasons Tesla would fail. I got quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those arguments and that we would probably fail, but it&#8217;s still worth trying,&#8221; Musk wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier, Munger <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/berkshire-hathaway-rules-out-investing-in-bitcoin\">compared Tesla and Bitcoin to &#8220;lice and fleas&#8221;<\/a>, and questioned the ability of digital gold to &#8220;become a global means of payment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In December, Munger said that <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/buffett-associate-backs-crackdown-on-chinas-crypto-industry\">Chinese authorities took the right decision<\/a>, banning cryptocurrencies and related activities. He said at the time that he would have preferred that digital assets had never been invented.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\"\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"\u201cnofollow\u201d noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analytics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway&#8217;s board, said that cryptocurrencies are used in illicit activity and should be banned. He said he is &#8216;proud&#8217; to have avoided investing in digital assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1139,1138],"class_list":["post-57930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-charlie-munger","tag-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"27","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57932,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57930\/revisions\/57932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}