Buffett defeated Musk 1-0 in the fight for the future of bitcoin

The collapse of cryptocurrencies the rift between its proponents and critics deepened. The value of bitcoin, the most popular of all, has dropped below US $ 30,000, very far from almost US $ 69,000 it reached in November last year. The trend seems to confirm the harsh outlook of legendary investor Warren Buffett about cryptocurrencies. A few days ago, the 91 -year -old financier kept that “I won’t pay $ 25 for all the bitcoin in the world”. His counterpart was Elon Musk, whose vision was exactly the opposite of Buffett’s.

both billionaires expresses a deeper and broader antinomy with the nature of crypto. Last weekend, while leading the fund’s annual shareholders ’meeting Berkshire Hathawaand, Buffett said again bitcoin is “worthless”, that it is not a productive asset and its price depends on what people are willing to pay. “Whether it will increase or decrease next year, or in five or 10 years, I don’t know. The only thing I’m sure of is that it’s not yielding anything,” he said.

Despite the unfavorable context, the CEO of Tesla and Space X reiterated his support for Dogecoin, a crypto based on a digital meme -a joke- that allows him to cut some of his losses. Buffett’s direct respondent was Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal with Musk. The libertarian investor considered it the “number one enemy” of bitcoin and called it part of a “financial gerontocracy” and a “sociopathic grandfather”.

Buffett’s poor identification is just one indication of the heated debate around crypto involved specialists, technology fanatics, investment funds and many regulatory authorities. Buffett’s logic is that bitcoin and ethereum, among others, are “worthless” and that “you can do nothing with them except sell them to someone else.” Without saying a word, he expressed what many believe: that it was just a speculative bubble. Bitcoin buyers are just hoping its price will increase.

Musk, on the other hand, maintains that cryptocurrencies are a store of value and that in the future they can be a safe and reliable currency. Last year, he twice announced that Teslas could be paid in bitcoin, something that never happened. Nothing surprising. Musk, owner of the largest fortune on the planet (US $ 232,000 million, according to Forbes), signed a deal to buy Twitter for $ 44 billion and days later he postponed the operation.

Crack is also present in Argentina. Discussions are as hot as when bitcoin goes up and when it goes down, in moments of euphoria and in moments of panic, as in the present. “There were a lot of questions and the casualties scared a lot of people“, said Matías Bari, CEO of Satoshi Tango, a buying and selling platform. The entrepreneur added that there is a lot of confusion about the collapse of Terra Luna, a cryptocurrency that within a few hours has lost almost all of its value. “These things cause nervousness, especially to those who don’t understand the subject,” Bari said.

“I don’t like to make firewood on fallen trees but what is happening exposing the lack of bitcoin basicswhich is a speculative market and this is not for the great investor world“, explained Diego Martínez Burzaco, from Inviu, the online broker of Banco Galicia. The expert recalled that Sudden rises and falls are common for at least 10 years and savers are recommended to be careful. “We don’t see the big financial revolution that many predicted. I’m more on Buffett’s side than Musk’s, ”the specialist concluded.

In Argentina there are surroundings 15 exchanges (trading platforms), including Ripio, Satoshi Tango, ArgenBTC, Bitso and Decrypto. The operation of cryptocurrencies, especially their lack of support from the State, is in the eyes of the Central Bank, the CNV (National Securities Commission) and also the AFIP. Recently, the tax authority established a 15% tax on crypto revenues.

There are currently 19,439 cryptos and new ones are added daily. In theory, this is a market with virtually no regulations and many countries, including the United States and Europe, already have it in their sights. Argentina is not on the sideline. Without further ado, 10 days ago BCRA prevented two local banks (Galicia and Brubank) from offering their clients the possibility to buy cryptocurrencies.