Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has once again drawn global attention. His firm now holds a record-breaking $334 billion cash balance—the largest amount ever recorded for a publicly traded company.
So why is Buffett comfortable sitting on such an enormous cash pile? And why does he continue to reject Bitcoin, a digital asset many hail as “digital gold”?
The Only Billionaire in the Top 10 to Make Money in 2025
Berkshire Hathaway’s $334 billion in cash didn’t happen by chance. According to Business Insider, Buffett raised much of this capital by selling $134 billion worth of stock in 2024.
At the start of 2024, Berkshire owned around 906 million Apple shares valued at $174 billion. Over the following nine months, Buffett and his team slashed that stake by 67%, down to 300 million shares. They also trimmed Berkshire’s position in Bank of America by 34%, reducing it to 680 million shares in the year’s second half.
This aggressive selling during the 2024 bull market helped Buffett sidestep a major market downturn in early 2025.
“Warren Buffett sold the top. Legendary,” Investor Luke Belmar commented.
In April 2025, global stock markets plunged. According to Reuters, the S&P 500 dropped more than 10% in just two trading sessions—the worst decline since World War II. In this context, Buffett’s decision to hoard cash proved remarkably prescient. He emerged as the only billionaire in the world’s top ten to make money in 2025.
Buffett Dismisses Bitcoin Despite Crypto Craze
Even as cryptocurrencies—especially Bitcoin—have captivated investors in recent years, Buffett has maintained his skepticism.
At Berkshire’s 2018 annual meeting, he famously described Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared” and predicted it would end badly. He went even further in 2022, stating that he wouldn’t pay $25 for the entire global supply of Bitcoin.
“Now 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? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything,” Buffett said at the time.
His stance contrasts sharply with that of Jefferies Financial Group, a company in which Berkshire holds 433,558 shares worth $34 million. Jefferies views Bitcoin as a key hedge against inflation. The firm owns a significant stake in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the world’s largest spot Bitcoin ETF. SEC filings show Jefferies held over 1.6 million IBIT shares, valued at over $85 million.
Why Does Buffett Hate Bitcoin?
Many investors continue to ask why Buffett remains so hostile to Bitcoin. Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, recently pointed to a 2025 investigative report that may offer answers.
The report suggests that Berkshire Hathaway may oppose Bitcoin due to concerns about its intrinsic value, sustainability, and potential threat to the firm’s business interests.
Back in 2021, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a subsidiary of the conglomerate, spent over $300,000 hiring eight lobbyists in Austin, Texas. Their mission: to push a plan for building ten natural gas “peaker” power plants at a total cost of $8 billion, according to the Texas Tribune.
However, Brad Jones, former CEO of ERCOT (Texas’s power grid operator), prioritized two other solutions for grid stability—Bitcoin mining and weatherizing the grid—over building new gas plants. Despite that, Texas Governor Dan Patrick continued to publicly oppose Bitcoin mining, claiming it destabilizes the grid. ERCOT and several studies have contradicted this view.
The investigation hinted that Patrick’s anti-Bitcoin stance may have been influenced by Berkshire lobbyists, particularly Allen Blakemore, a strategic advisor to the governor. These lobbyists may have persuaded Patrick to support Berkshire’s commercial interests. If Bitcoin mining were restricted, demand for natural gas power plants would rise—potentially securing contracts worth over $10 billion for Berkshire Hathaway.
Regardless of the reasons behind Warren Buffett’s views on Bitcoin, it is evident that with $334 billion in cash available, every decision made by Berkshire Hathaway in the coming months will be closely monitored. While Buffett has consistently maintained his position against cryptocurrency, it is uncertain whether this will continue indefinitely.
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