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Bitcoin fans laughed at Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett on Monday after the billionaire investor’s company apparently plummeted 99% in value.
At 9:49 a.m. ET, Berkshire Class A Shares (BRK.A) instantly plummeted from $621,000 to just $185 each, prompting the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to temporarily halt trading in the asset.
In reality, the massive drop was triggered by an unexplained technical issue at the NYSE, which impacted a number of other large companies, including Bank of Montreal (BMO). The problem was resolved within a few hours, trading resumed and BRK.A closed the day at 0.59% in the green.
Still, the oversized red candle wasn’t a good look for Buffett, especially as someone who has harshly criticized Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for being too speculative and volatile.
“Who’s the rat poison now, huh?” tweeted Blockstream CEO Adam back on Monday. “Rat poison squared” is what Buffett called Bitcoin in May 2018, where he said he would be happy to “buy a five-year put option on each of the cryptocurrencies.” Since then, BRK.A is up around 114%, while Bitcoin is up around 600%.
Buffett’s late vice president and business partner Charlie Munger has also been one of crypto’s most outspoken critics, having called Bitcoin a “stupid” and “bad” investment that will “very likely go to zero.”
Many joked about the momentary annihilation of Buffett’s net worth and the investment opportunity it represented. “Finally, I have a chance to acquire Warren Buffett,” said the billionaire investor and Tron founder Justin Sol.
“If you bought $500 worth of Berkshire Hathaway 10 minutes ago, it would now be worth over $2 million,” he said Crypto meme account “greg” after stock rally. “Let that sink in.”
Others, like cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, have noted how Bitcoin trading may never be halted like BRK.A was on the NYSE. “Bitcoin fixes this,” tweeted famous whistleblower Edward Snowden on the matter.
Although the Bitcoin network operates 24/7 and never goes down, several centralized exchanges have halted Bitcoin trading and withdrawals on numerous occasions –sometimes indefinitely. Many have also had their share of explosive price crashes, including a BTC flash crash below $9,000 on BitMEX just two months ago.
Buffett never publicly addressed Berkshire’s sudden fall, although meme accounts certainly put some words in his mouth, reminiscent of previous crypto catastrophes.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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