It never fails. When the Bitcoin market is down, they crow, “I told you so!” When the market is up, they scream about how it is just another bubble and that crypto is only used by criminals. With Bitcoin trying to claw its way back to $6000, let’s take a look at some of the week’s most noteworthy FUD.

The Doddering Duo of Bitcoin FUD

These two men may be financial geniuses, but when it comes to Bitcoin, their age (and their ignorance) is showing.

I’m talking, of course, about the “Oracle of Omaha” himself, Warren Buffett, and his faithful sidekick, Charlie Munger.

Last week, the pair sat down with reporters ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Saturday and made no bones about their opinion on Bitcoin.

“It’s a gambling device… there’s been a lot of frauds connected with it. There’s been disappearances, so there’s a lot lost on it. Bitcoin hasn’t produced anything,” exclaimed Buffett.

Thank goodness no fraud ever occurs involving fiat currency, eh Warren?

I guess the $243 billion in fines levied against banks for money laundering, misleading investors, and a whole slew of other shady practices don’t count. That figure, by the way, that doesn’t include the billions fined in 2018 and 2019 to date!

Munger was quick to chime in with some Bitcoin bashing of his own. Trotting out an anecdote that I’m sure he thought was both clever and funny, Munger quipped:

I’ve tried to figure out what the Bitcoin people do during their happy hour and I finally figured it out. They celebrate the life and work of Judas Iscariot.

Judas Iscariot, for those who don’t know, is the apostle whom Christians believe betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

I’m not sure what point he was trying to make with that comment. Was he saying that fiat currency is like Jesus and Bitcoin investors are betraying it?

It’s clear that neither Buffett nor Munger has even a glimmer of understanding where Bitcoin – and crypto in general – are concerned. In fact, Buffett himself admitted as much last year when he told CNBC:

I get into enough trouble with the things I think I know something about. Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don’t know about?

Stick with what you know, gentlemen, and quit bellyaching about matters beyond your ken.

Stiglitz on Crypto: Shut It Down

Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz takes a different approach to his Bitcoin bashing. Instead of trashing it as an investment and mocking its investors, Stiglitz takes the law and order approach.

Listening to him, you would think that Bitcoin investors are nothing more than criminals (and would-be criminals) using the cryptocurrency to hide their nefarious deeds from the watchful eyes of the government.

Joseph Stiglitz: 'We should shutdown the cryptocurrencies' https://t.co/KqTrkfVMqb — CNBC (@CNBC) May 6, 2019

In an interview with CNBC earlier today, Stiglitz reminded us that only the known is safe:

We have a very good currency. So far the currency’s been run in a very stable way. There’s no need for anybody to go to a cryptocurrency.

And, while he admits that he sees value in a digital payments system, cryptocurrency is not the answer because everyone knows that crypto is only used for bad things (eyeroll):

It disturbs me a great deal, the attention that was given to cryptocurrencies because those were moving things off of a transparent platform onto a dark platform. […] I actually think we should shut down the cryptocurrencies.

This isn’t the first time that Stiglitz has cited Bitcoin’s illicit usage and called for it to be banned. Near the height of the 2017 run-up, he told Bloomberg:

Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight. So it seems to me it ought to be outlawed. It doesn’t serve any socially useful function. We ought to just go back to what we always have had.

At least the man is consistent.

Which crypto FUDster do you love to hate? Let us know on Twitter at @BitcoinerXcom.

Images courtesy of The Simpsons/20th Century Fox