Warren Buffett publicly called Bitcoin “rat poison” in 2018. Common units of equity (ARCA: Bitcoin)

Despite his well-known disdain for cryptocurrencies, the “Oracle of Omaha” — Warren Buffettof Berkshire Hathaway Burke Burke Invested in a company that supports the cryptocurrency market and skyrocketed by 27.43% in 2024.

What happened: Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway initially invested $500 million in Series G funding and subsequently invested $250 million. NU HOLDINGS LIMITED. Nu.

Brazilian digital banking company Nu launched its cryptocurrency platform Nubank Cripto in 2022.

Berkshire Hathaway will increase its stake from 0.1% in the fourth quarter of December 31, 2022 to 0.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.

Initial support Bitcoin Bitcoin/USD, Ethereum Ethereum/USDand polygon MATIC/USDthe platform Nubank Cripto now includes Uniswap Unified currency/USD and chain link LINK/USD. It allows users to send, receive and convert cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins such as USD coins.

In 2018, at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Buffett described Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared.” On the contrary, Berkshire made considerable profits from its investment in Nu.

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Why it’s important: According to its 13F filing, as of the end of the third quarter, Berkshire held 86.438 million Nu shares, worth $1.179 billion.

As Q4 figures were not yet available at the time of writing, assuming Berkshire Hathaway’s Nu holdings did not change during the period, the shares would have declined in value by 24.10% in the quarter ended December 31, at which time the share price was $10.36, compared with $13.65 on September 30, 2024.

However, Nu shares are up 27.43% in 2024, according to data compiled by Benzinga Pro.

While Nu offers cryptocurrency services, one could back up Buffett and say it is not primarily a cryptocurrency company.

However, back in 2018, Buffett said, “As far as cryptocurrencies go, I can almost certainly say they’re going to have a bad ending.”

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