The world’s largest companies, richest names and giant brands have now turned their eyes to cryptocurrencies. We see the presence of these companies in more areas like Metaverse, NFT, Blockchain. Cryptocurrencies have been met with great interest by young people and we will see the benefits of this more clearly in the coming years.
Warren Buffett, Indirect Bitcoin Investment
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold some of its Visa and Mastercard holdings and increased its investments in Nubank, Brazil’s largest fintech bank, which is also popular with the country’s Bitcoin investors. It was announced that the company purchased Nubank Class A shares worth $ 1 billion in the 4th quarter of 2021. On the other hand, it sold $1.8 billion and $1.3 billion worth of Visa and Mastercard shares, respectively, signaling a shift away from lending companies to gain exposure to fintech rivals.
Dubbed the “Seer of Omaha,” Buffett is popular for his cautious approach to investing, especially in the hottest sectors of the market like fintech. Buffet is in the top 10 of the richest list with his fortune exceeding 109 billion dollars.
Is Buffet Warming Up To Bitcoin?
The veteran investor also downplayed emerging decentralized finance solutions like Bitcoin (BTC), mocking it as an asset that “creates nothing”. But Berkshire’s new stake in Nubank shows Buffett has recently softened into fintech. In detail, the firm had invested $500 million in the venture in July 2021. The return on the investment in question was $150 million in December 2021, following Nubank’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Easynvest, an investment platform that Nubank acquired in September 2020, has been actively offering a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) since June 2021. Named QBTC11, the ETF is backed by QR Asset Management and trades on the B3 exchange (the second oldest in Brazil).
Therefore, Nubank, which continues to indirectly invest in the burgeoning crypto sector through Easynvest, seems likely to use additional income opportunities to benefit its top investor, Warren Buffett, despite the view that Bitcoin is a “rat poison.” This is mainly because of the growth of crypto-related investment products in 2021. Cash flow to crypto funds doubled in 2021.
