Warren Buffett and Bill Gates slam bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for being non-productive investments

American billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been critical of cryptocurrencies with Buffett saying on Monday that bitcoin was non-productive and ultimately depended on its mystique.

Buffett, who is CEO of the American company Berkshire Hathaway, said that bitcoin investors depended on people wanting to pay more for the currency fuelled by the mystique surrounding it.

He told CNBC television: “It does create a rising price, creates more buyers … If you don’t understand it, you get much more excited. People like to speculate, they like to gamble.”

Buffett instead said investors would have better chances investing in US stocks.

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Views on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum have been very divided due to the volatile changes in value and unpredictable patterns.

Late last year, bitcoin value went from an all-time high of $20,000 (£14,743) per coin on 17 December to dropping by 29 per cent the following week to $13,482 (£9.940).

Bill Gates has also openly criticised bitcoin, saying: “I would short if there was an easy way to do it.”

JP Morgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in September 2017 that he thought cryptocurrencies are bad investments labelling it “fraud”.

At the time, he said: “If you are stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day.”

However, Dimon has in later times retracted his statement, regretting calling it a fraud.

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