Billionaire Charlie Munger Says Crypto Is a ‘Gambling Contract’ the US Should Ban – AI Tech News

Cryptocurrencies represent a “miserable excess” that should be banned in the United States, billionaire Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said in a scathing column this week.

Munger – the 99-year-old right-hand man of legendary investor Warren Buffett – has been a vocal critic of bitcoin and other unregulated digital tokens, which he once likened to the “venereal disease” he was. glad to have avoided.

In a column for The Wall Street Journal, Munger doubled down on his view that cryptocurrencies are a predatory scam targeting ordinary investors.

“A cryptocurrency is not a currency, nor a commodity, nor a security”, Munger wrote in the editorial published on Wednesday. “Instead, it is a gambling contract with a nearly 100% house advantage, made in a country where gambling contracts have traditionally been regulated only by states that compete with laxity. “

“Obviously the United States should now enact new federal law that prevents this from happening,” Munger added.

Munger suggested that Congress follow the example of China, which banned cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021 due to concerns about its potential risks.

The billionaire also made a more obscure reference to the British Parliament’s passage of the Bubble Act in 1720, which banned public trading in new ordinary shares after the speculative trading saga known as the “South Sea Bubble” resulted in a major economic crisis. The ban remained in place for over a century.

“During these 100 years, England has made by far the greatest national contribution to the march of civilization, for she strongly led both the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution and, to boot, spawned a small promising country called the United States,” Munger said. .

Strong condemnations of the crypto sector are nothing new for Munger, who has lambasted the industry and its key players on several occasions in the past.

Asked about FTX’s collapse into bankruptcy last November, Munger told CNBC that cryptocurrencies are a “very, very bad thing” that is ripe for exploitation.

“The country didn’t need a currency that was good for kidnappers and so on,” Munger said at the time. “There are people who think they have to be on every case that’s hot. They don’t care if it’s child prostitution or bitcoin. If it’s hot, they want to be in on it. I think it’s completely crazy.

Last July, Munger compared the crypto industry to an “open sewer” that was “full of malicious organisms.”

“I think anyone selling this stuff is either delusional or evil. I will not touch crypto,” Munger added. “I am not interested in undermining the national currencies of the world.”