Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Steers Towards Crypto Investments?

Warren Buffet’s American multinational conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, has expanded its shares in Nu Holdings, a Brazilian digital banking company. This comes years after Warren Buffet said they would never have a position in cryptocurrencies or the crypto sphere. Berkshire Hathaway continues to follow a conservative investment approach as it increases its holdings in Nu Holdings, as recorded in 2024-Q3.

Berkshire Hathaway Broadens Investment in Nu Holdings

In a recent SEC filing, Nu Holdings reported that Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway increased its holdings to 0.4% as per the records for the third quarter of fiscal 2024. This is an increase from 0.1% which was reported for the fourth quarter which ended on December 31, 2022.

Berkshire Hathaway initially invested $500 million in Nu Holdings when the Brazilian digital banking company held Series G Funding in 2021. Buffet’s company later invested more funds worth $250 million to take the total investments to $750 million. It is now estimated that Berkshire Hathaway holds over 86 million shares of Nu Holdings for a value of approximately $1.2 billion.

Warren Buffet’s Earlier Stand on Crypto

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet, was earlier against having any share in the crypto market. He never identified himself as a fan of the crypto sphere, and is known for calling Bitcoin ‘probably rat poison squared.’ Warren Buffet said that in 2018 while also telling the media that cryptocurrencies would come to a ‘bad ending.’ He confirmed at that time that they don’t have a position in cryptocurrencies and they will never have any position in them.

That stand appears to be steering in a different direction now with Berkshire Hathaway expanding its holdings in a company that launched its crypto platform in 2022 – Nubank Crypto. The cryptocurrency platform by Nu offers support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Uniswap, and Chainlink. Some core functions that it offers to users are sending, receiving, and converting cryptocurrencies.

Investment Strategy of Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway is known to follow a conservative approach with its investments. This is evident from its financial statements wherein it revealed holding over $325 million in cash and equivalents with most of it being in U.S Treasury Bills. Thereby, staying away from making heavy investments in hot stocks during their bull run. The top management has backed this approach of Berkshire Hathaway by saying that the company has succeeded over the decades by ‘being boring in that way.’

Nevertheless, other prominent figures in the industry continue to support the crypto market even as BTC prices crash. For instance, Fred Thiel, the CEO of MARA Holdings, has outlined a plan to implement Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for 50 states and the Federal Government.

Similarly, John Deaton outlined four key objectives for the White House Crypto Council. This has boosted the confidence of crypto investors who are looking forward to more developments, especially under the Trump Administration.