Buffett Trolled Again: Punter Bets Millions Bitcoin Price Will Soar Above Berkshire Stock

According to the chief executive officer of bookmaker William Hill Australia, Tom Waterhouse, an anonymous punter made this AUD$8.5 million on the belief that bitcoin will be worth more than the price of Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares — which are currently trading at more than US$280,000 above BTC — within half a decade.
At the current market exchange rates, that’s a bet of US$6.28 million with possible winnings of US$890 million. Currently, the market price of the NYSE-listed Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway is over US$288,000, meaning that bitcoin will have to appreciate by more than 40 times in the next couple of years.

Four Years Of Bashing Bitcoin
Buffett’s anti-bitcoin stance has been well documented. In April, as CCN reported, the Oracle of Omaha likened buying bitcoin to gambling since it has no returns other than the expectation that it could be offloaded at a higher price in future.

“If you buy something like a farm, an apartment house, or an interest in a business… You can do that on a private basis… And it’s a perfectly satisfactory investment. You look at the investment itself to deliver the return to you. Now, if you buy something like bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don’t really have anything that has produced anything. You’re just hoping the next guy pays more,” said Buffett.

In the run-up to bitcoin reaching record highs last year, Buffett warned that bitcoin was a bubble during a Q&A session with business students. He repeated similar remarks during a television interview in January this year. And as far back as December 2014, when the flagship cryptocurrency was trading at around $US320, he urged people to stay away from bitcoin.

Fighting Back
But unlike in the past, the cryptosphere now seems to have refused to just sit back and let the anti-bitcoin rhetoric slide. Two months ago after the billionaire investor branded bitcoin “rat poison squared” during the annual shareholder meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, cloud mining giant Genesis Mining put up billboards bearing the caption: ‘Warren: You said you were wrong about Google and Amazon. Maybe you’re wrong about bitcoin?’ close to the billionaire’s offices in Omaha, Nebraska.