- Warren Buffett has never been unclear about his disdain for cryptocurrency. But Berkshire Hathaway has invested millions of dollars in a Brazilian crypto-linked bank, Nu Holdings Ltd., whose stock is up 34% year over year.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO and chairman Warren Buffett has repeatedly made his stance about cryptocurrency clear: He’s not a fan.
In the 2018 annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett called the digital currency Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared.”
“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,” Buffett told CNBC in 2018. “We don’t own any, we’re not short any, we’ll never have a position in them.”
But recent reports show Berkshire Hathaway and some of its investment managers may be getting more lenient in their views on cryptocurrency.
Berkshire Hathaway has invested in Nu Holdings, a Brazilian digital banking company that has its own cryptocurrency platform and supports the cryptocurrency market. Buffett’s company initially invested $500 million in a Series G funding round in 2021, followed by another $250 million, according to Nu.
In 2022, Nu launched its cryptocurrency platform, Nubank Cripto, which initially supported Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Polygon. The platform now includes Uniswap and Chainlink, and allows users to send, receive, and convert cryptocurrencies.
Nu Holdings didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Berkshire Hathway increased its holdings in Nu from 0.1% in the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2022, to 0.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, according to filings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway and Buffett didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
That means as of the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Berkshire Hathaway held more than 86 million shares of Nu, which is valued at nearly $1.2 billion. So that means Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are benefiting from a business that he has claimed in the past to not know much about.
“I get into enough trouble with things I think I know something about,” Buffett said in the 2018 CNBC interview. “Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don’t know anything about.”
Nu Holdings' stock price is up nearly 34% year over year as of midday Wednesday. And now that Berkshire Hathaway appears to be making crypto-related investments, Buffett might need to reword his previous statement that cryptocurrency wouldn’t move the needle.
"If you told me you own all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it?” Buffett said during a 2022 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. “I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything.”
Still, it’s important to note that Berkshire Hathaway tends to be more conservative in its investment strategies overall. As of late 2024, Berkshire Hathaway held more than $325 billion in cash and equivalents, according to the firm’s quarterly financial statements, but most of that was in U.S. Treasury bills. That meant Berkshire Hathaway was steering away from heavily investing in hot stocks, even when the market was on a winning streak.
“Berkshire has succeeded over the decades by being boring in that way,” Meyer Shields, a managing director at boutique investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, told Fortune’s Alena Botros in November 2024.
