Binance CEO Says He and Warren Buffett Use Similar Investment Strategy but Doubts Buffett Has Skills to Keep Crypto Safe

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance says that he and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett share a similar investment strategy. However, he said he would not convince the Oracle of Omaha to invest in cryptocurrency. “I get worried if he uses crypto. He may not have the necessary skills or the knowledge on how to keep his own crypto safe,” the Binance CEO stressed.

Binance’s CEO on Warren Buffett and Crypto Investing

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) talked about Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and cryptocurrency investing on Yahoo Finance Wednesday.

Zhao recently praised Buffett’s investing skills after reading a book about him titled “Warren Buffett: Inside the Ultimate Money Mind.” The book provides “a deep analysis of Buffett’s essential wisdom, an intricate mosaic of wide-ranging ideas and insights that Buffett calls a Money Mind,” according to its description.

The Binance boss was asked if he were sitting in a room with Buffett, what he would tell the Oracle of Omaha about why he should invest in crypto. Zhao replied:

I wouldn’t convince him to invest in crypto. I think it’s not necessary that everybody has to invest in crypto.

“My mom doesn’t use the internet that much and that’s fine. The internet is fine. My mom is fine,” the Binance executive continued. “I think basically it’s a free world. We don’t have to convince everybody to use crypto. It’s only for the people who want to use crypto.”

He explained that he read the book on Buffett because he reads many investment books. “I recently just stumbled upon it, and it’s a great book, actually,” Zhao emphasized, adding that the Oracle of Omaha “has many investment theses that are timeless. And that still applies to crypto. It’s just that he’s not personally interested in crypto.”

In addition, the Binance executive thinks he and Buffett have similar investing strategies. He explained, as noted in the book, that Buffett is not an investor who likes to diversify his portfolio. Zhao described:

He likes to hold a small number of stocks that he knows well. And he doesn’t want to diversify across hundreds of stocks. That’s very similar to my personal mentality. I only hold BNB and BTC. I don’t diversify myself across different crypto assets.

“Because of his non-diversification, he is not into bitcoin or crypto. That’s fine. We don’t need to convince him,” Zhao emphasized.

“He is not short of money. He is at a different stage of life where I think the learnings, the philosophies, the teachings are valuable to the world,” the Binance executive added. The Berkshire Hathaway CEO “is super successful which I respect a lot,” he added, noting that there is no need to get him into crypto.

In fact, Zhao said he would be worried if Buffett starts using crypto, stating:

I get worried if he uses crypto. He may not have the necessary skills or the knowledge on how to keep his own crypto safe.

Buffett has been a vocal critic of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. He called BTC “rat poison squared” in 2018. He also called the cryptocurrency gambling, a game, and not an investment. His righthand man, Charlie Munger, said bitcoin is “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization” at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May.

Zhao was also asked about his recent discussion on Twitter with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Binance’s dogecoin problem. Musk, a proponent of the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin, tweeted Tuesday morning that the Binance’s problem “sounds shady.”

“Well, I don’t intend to be sassy on Twitter,” the Binance boss explained, emphasizing that Musk was “incorrect” and “lacks research.” He continued: “I am not aggressive by nature, but I’m also not submissive or cowardly when it comes to defending our business. I view defending Binance as my job and defending BNB and the crypto industry as my life’s mission.”