Cryptocurrency investor Justin Sun finally dined with Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett, who's famously skeptical about Bitcoin. Berkshire Hathaway stock rose in buy range.
Last July, the 29-year-old Sun paid $4.57 million to have lunch with the investing legend as part of a charity fundraiser. But he put that meeting off, citing health and other issues.
Then on Jan. 23, Sun and four other crypto advocates met Buffett for a three-hour dinner that included steaks and Coca-Cola at the Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, Neb, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Buffett, a notable critic of Bitcoin, has called it everything from "rat poison squared" to a "delusion" and "gambling device."
"Mr. Buffett shared a lot of his wisdom in business, investment and life in general," said a spokesman for Tron, cryptocurrency company founded by Sun, according to Bloomberg. "And of course there were a lot of conversations around blockchain and crypto. ... Mr. Buffett said blockchain has its value. ... He believes blockchain technology will have a disruptive effect on the future of payment."
While dubious about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Buffett is a fan of digital payment stocks. Buffett's widely followed investment portfolio has a massive stake in American Express among its top 10 holdings. He also owns Visa, Mastercard and Brazilian fintech stock StoneCo. He's also invested in Indian fintech company Paytm.
Visa and Mastercard initially supported Facebook's Libra global crypto-based payments network, but then backed out late last year.
Warren Buffett Responds
Buffett's assistant, Debbie Bosanek, told Bloomberg her boss and Sun had an "interesting and enjoyable discussion" at the dinner.
Other guests included Charlie Lee, founder of the Litecoin Foundation; Chris Lee, CFO of the Chinese exchange Huobi; Yoni Assia, CEO of the trading platform eToro; and Helen Hai, head of Binance Charity.
B-class shares of Berkshire Hathaway added 0.4% to 229.57 on the stock market today. Berkshire Hathaway stock cleared a three-weeks-tight 228.33 buy point early this year and is now finding support at the 10-week moving average, according to MarketSmith analysis. It's currently in buy range off a 226.40 entry, but the relative strength line is lagging.
