Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman, has called on the U.S. government not to allow crypto in an opinion piece entitled “Why America Should Ban Crypto” published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. This is what the Berkshire executive wrote
A cryptocurrency is not a currency or a commodity and it is not a security. It’s instead a gambling contract that offers a nearly 100 percent advantage for the house. This was entered into in a country in which gambling contracts have been traditionally regulated by only states that are lax.
Munger stated, “Obviously the U.S. should now adopt a new federal law to prevent this from happening,”
The Berkshire vice-chair referred to two precedents, which may offer insight into how to ban cryptocurrency. He said that China has already banned cryptocurrency, and that it was a wise decision by the Chinese government to ban them.
The second is that England was in severe depression since the 1700s after a failed speculative trading program. Munger explained that the country stopped public trading in new common stock for 100 years. He stated that England made the most significant national contribution to the march to civilization during this period. It led in both the Enlightenment as well as the Industrial Revolution, and spawned a promising country called the United States.
Munger concluded:
What can the U.S. do now that cryptocurrencies are banned? One more thing might be logical: Thanks to the Chinese communist leader, for his extraordinary example of uncommon intelligence.
Berkshire executive is a long-time bitcoin and crypto skeptic. He has called Bitcoin “rat poison” and compared crypto trading to “trading turds.”
In 2021, he stated that he wishes crypto hadn’t been invented. also praised China on banning cryptocurrency. He called bitcoin “disgusting” and “opposing to the interests of civilization.”
He also called crypto the venereal illness in February 2013. He advised everyone to avoid crypto, as though it was an’open drain, full of malicious organisms.