Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway takes a sip of the crypto 『rat poison』 he once said he would never go near

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Warren Buffett has been clear about his dislike of cryptocurrencies. Yet, Berkshire Hathaway has invested millions of dollars in a cryptocurrency-related Brazilian bank, Nu Holdings Ltd. whose stock has risen 34% annually.

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO and chairman, has repeatedly made his position on cryptocurrencies clear: he doesn’t like them.

At the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Buffett called Bitcoin ‘probably rat poison squared’.

“In terms of cryptocurrencies, I can almost certainly say they’re going to end badly,” Buffett said in a 2018 interview with CNBC. “We don’t own any cryptocurrencies, we don’t short any cryptocurrencies, and we will never hold them.” “As far as cryptocurrencies are concerned, I can almost certainly say they’re going to end badly,” Buffett said in a 2018 interview with CNBC. “We don’t own any cryptocurrencies, we don’t short any cryptocurrencies, we’ll never hold them.”

But recent reports suggest that Berkshire Hathaway and some of its investment managers may be becoming more lenient in their views on cryptocurrencies.

Berkshire Hathaway has invested in Nu Holdings, a Brazilian digital banking company that has its own cryptocurrency platform and supports cryptocurrency markets. According to Nu, Berkshire Hathaway initially participated in a $500 million Series G round in 2021, followed by a $250 million investment.

In 2022, Nu launched its cryptocurrency platform, Nubank Cripto, which initially supported Bitcoin, Ether, and Polygon. the platform now includes Uniswap and Chainlink and allows users to send, receive, and exchange cryptocurrencies.

Nu Holdings did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Berkshire Hathaway increased its stake in Nu from 0.1% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 to 0.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, according to an SEC filing.

Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway and Buffett did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

This means that as of the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2024, Berkshire Hathaway held more than 86 million shares of Nu stock, valued at nearly $1.2 billion. So Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are benefiting from a business he has claimed in the past not to understand.

“I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble for things I thought I knew,” Buffett said in a 2018 interview with CNBC. “So why would I go long or short on something I don’t know anything about?”

Shares of Nu Holdings were up nearly 34% year over year as of noon Wednesday. And now that Berkshire Hathaway appears to be making investments related to cryptocurrencies, Buffett may need to reword his previous comments about cryptocurrencies not making an impact.

“If you told me you owned all the bitcoins in the world and sold them to me for $25, I wouldn’t take them, because what would I do with them?” Buffett said at the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. “I’d have to sell it back to you anyway. It’s not going to do anything.”

Nonetheless, it’s important to note that Berkshire Hathaway is generally more conservative in its investment strategy. According to the company’s financial statements for the fourth quarter of 2024, Berkshire Hathaway holds more than $325 billion in cash and equivalents, most of which is in U.S. Treasuries. This means that Berkshire Hathaway has avoided investing heavily in popular stocks even when the market is on a winning streak.

“Berkshire has been successful through the years precisely because it has kept a boring approach to this,” said Meyer Shields, a managing director at boutique investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, in a November 2024 interview with Fortune’s Alena Botros.