Warren Buffett is doubling down on his distaste for cryptocurrencies. As one of the most successful, and public investors of today, Buffett’s words hold weight among the general public. Speaking to CNBC, Buffett made it clear that he has no interest in cryptocurrencies as an investment, and doesn’t believe these assets hold any value of their own.
“Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don’t produce anything,” he told CNBC’s Becky Quick in a “Squawk Box” interview. “In terms of value: zero….I don’t have any cryptocurrency and I never will,” added Buffett.
This should come as no surprise to cryptocurrency advocates. Buffett previously noted his negative sentiment on digital assets, and is one in a long line of financial professionals that is vocally anti-cryptocurrency. Others cryptocurrency bashers include: economists Nouriel Roubini and Paul Krugman, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
Maybe Facebook’s Libra isn’t dead after all. The company just scored a big victory in its quest to operate a fully-functional cryptocurrency. The e-commerce technology company Shopify just announced it would operate a node on the Libra network and contribute a minimum of $10 million to the Libra Association.
Shopify is excited at the prospect of becoming a key cog in the Libra network, and see the advantages the project can bring the public:
As a member of the Libra Association, we will work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere . . . Our mission has always been to support the entrepreneurial journey of the more than one million merchants on our platform. That means advocating for transparent fees and easy access to capital, and ensuring the security and privacy of our merchants’ customer data. We want to create an infrastructure that empowers more entrepreneurs around the world.
This is just the kind of positive news Facebook needs to keep Libra in the public eye. The project had been reeling since regulators essentially shunned the idea and key partners like Visa, Stripe, and eBay backed out of their relationship with Facebook on the project.
The newest piece of financial regulation is about to take effect in Europe, and it bodes well for cryptocurrencies. The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) is set to put cryptocurrencies in the same category as banks, payment processors, and gaming. But in possibly the most important piece of the legislation for cryptocurrencies, financial institutions will have to provide justified reasons as to why they are refusing services to a customer, including for cryptocurrency transactions.
This means, all exchanges, no matter where in the EU they are located, will have to comply with these new regulatory standards. According to Larry Cermak, Director of Research at The Block, this will cause consolidation in the European market:
“Exchanges will have to register and let authorities obtain KYC of users. This means that even Binance and OKEx, both based in Malta, will be required to follow these rules or leave the EU.
Some smaller businesses, such as Bottle Pay, Simplecoin and Chopcoin have recently announced that they are shutting down altogether because of 5AMLD. Bottle Pay has shut down only three months after raising a $2M seed round.”
Unfortunately for European cryptocurrency exchanges and custodial services, this will also bring a higher cost for compliance with regulators. Still, for the industry as a whole this appears to be a win in the region.
Is Elon Musk trolling again, or does he really think Dogecoin is the best cryptocurrency out there? Musk previously voiced his skepticism for Bitcoin, but has now given a vote of confidence for Dogecoin. As expected, Dogecoin rallied in price following the tweet. The cryptocurrency is still trading much lower than its previous high above $0.016, and now trades close to $0.002.
“Dogs rock”
“They have the best coin”
This isn’t the first time Musk has endorsed Dogecoin. In April, 2019 Musk tweeted, “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.” It is unclear if Musk has any relationship with the coin and its development, if he is a fan of the cryptocurrency, or, if he is simply playing the part of internet troll.
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