After going through some torrid times in 2018, bitcoin, the mother of all virtual currencies is trading around $6,250 at press time. Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway, an investment conglomerate, holding assets that are worth almost three times as much as the entire crypto industry, is soaring with a single share trading for $288,000. Headed by the outspoken crypto naysayer Warren Buffett, the financial giant is firmly standing alongside the most prominent financial institution worldwide.

Perhaps triggered by the constant anti-crypto rhetoric coming from Mr. Buffett, one crypto aficionado from The Land Down Under has made an eye-watering and extremely bullish bet on the BTC price. The unknown punter has contacted a well-known bookmaker Tom Waterhouse to wager AUD 8.5 million (USD 6.3m) that the bitcoin price will surpass that of Berkshire Hathaway’s shares by December 31st, 2023. Should this outlandish prediction prove to be true, the Aussie would receive a hefty payout of AUD 1.2 billion (USD 888m).

Big Bet: Well known Crypto expert has just requested a bet of $8.5m AUD to win $1.2bn that a Bitcoin will exceed the price of a Berkshire Hathaway share (c.$280k) by 2023. Have put him in touch with large syndicate – hope he can get set! pic.twitter.com/C20AHzH2k9 — Tom Waterhouse (@tomwaterhouse) July 11, 2018

Mr. Buffett has been a vocal critic of bitcoin and other digital currencies since their early days, calling BTC “worse than rat poison” and claiming that cryptocurrencies will come to a “bad ending”.

Charlie Munger, his longtime right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, seems to be even more disgusted by digital assets as he has dubbed bitcoin as “worthless artificial gold”, “scum-ball activity” and called people pushing it a disgrace. Speaking at the annual Berkshire shareholder’s meeting he went one further, delivering a mind-boggling comparison, saying that trading cryptocurrencies is almost as bad as trading “freshly harvested baby brains.”

In a now famous example of how even the most prominent billionaire investors can be totally wrong, Buffett refused to buy BTC back in 2013, when it was trading for around $130.

Despite the staunch criticism towards virtual currencies, Buffett has acknowledged the potential of blockchain technology while also admitting he does not fully understand the science behind it. BNSF Railway Company, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has already made strides towards using the distributed ledger technology in its supply chain operations by joining the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

The world’s most famous investor has been proven colossally wrong in the past, as he has refused to invest in Google in Amazon back when these companies were just starting to develop into overarching industry giants they are now. Buffett admitted it was a mistake speaking to Berkshire shareholders in 2017 and the crypto industry did not miss a chance to poke at him, as cloud services company Genesis Mining put up cheeky billboards close to Berkshire offices in Omaha, Nebraska.

These were billboard signs were placed in Omaha around Warren Buffett’s office. 😆 truism pic.twitter.com/0ceuHJaKuU — Frank Holmes (@bulldogholmes) May 16, 2018

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