Throughout the last decade, individuals have reaped the benefits of virtual assets, which dominate the market. Warren Buffett, for example, invested $1 billion in Nubank, a crypto-friendly bank established in Brazil and the largest of its kind in Latin America.
Warren Buffett Invested $1 Billion in a Crypto-Friendly Bank
Almost four years after characterising Bitcoin as “possibly rat poison squared” at Berkshire Hathaway’s 2018 annual shareholder meeting and warning investors against it; Buffett appears to have flipped his opinion and invested one billion dollars in a crypto-friendly bank.
Nubank, a so-called neobank, is a bank that works outside of the standard banking system’s norms. NuInvest, the digital bank’s investing section, enables customers to invest in a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF); tapping into a financial market that Berkshire’s management has shown little interest in.
Nonetheless, despite its founders’ hatred for cryptocurrencies and the crypto market; Berkshire Hathaway’s new investment in Nubank is not the conglomerate’s first venture into this industry.
Berkshire previously purchased a $500 million interest in Nubank last summer, months before the business went public in December 2021.
This Is Not The First Investment In The ‘Crypto-Friendly Bank’
Surprisingly, Buffett’s company’s new investment in Nubank is not the first time they have experimented in this industry. Berkshire already owned a $500 million interest in Nubank last year, months before the business went public in December 2021.
While Berkshire increased its interests in the crypto space in 2021, the business also reduced its holdings of other; more traditional financial assets. Berkshire disclosed a $3 billion reduction in its Visa and Mastercard shares in the same recent SEC filing that revealed the $1 billion investment in Nubank.
Nubank said at the time that the Berkshire investment was the most significant single investment the fintech bank had ever received.