Warren Buffett’s ‘crypto stock’ beats Apple and Amazon — but not Bitcoin

cointelegraph.com:

Warren Buffett may still view cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin (BTC) as “rat poison squared,” but he is generating big profits from his position in a crypto-friendly bank in 2023.

The “Oracle of Omaha” purchased 107 million shares of Nu Holdings, a Brazil-based fintech company and owner of the crypto-friendly Nubank, via his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in two separate rounds in 2021.

Berkshire invested $500 million in Nu Holdings in June 2021 and raised its stake by another $250 million in December 2021. The firm has not sold a single share since, according to its second quarter 2023 earnings report.

Nu’s share price is currently up nearly 106% year-to-date (YTD), meaning Buffett’s $750 million position is now worth around $879.50 million, assuming Berkshire has still not sold any of its Nu shares. However, at its peak in February 2022, the position was worth over $1 billion.

Nubank has been dubbed crypto-friendly because some of its divisions offer crypto-related services to over 1.35 million users. Therefore, investing in Nubank can be seen as having indirect exposure to the cryptocurrency industry. 

That includes Easynvest, a trading platform that offers a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) product, and Nubank, a digital financial services platform that offers BTC and Ether (ETH) trading. Nubank also launched a loyalty token on the Polygon blockchain.

Moreover, Nu Holdings allocated 1% of its cash holdings to Bitcoin in May 2022.

“This move reinforces the company’s conviction in Bitcoin’s current and future potential in disrupting financial services in the region,” Nubank stated at the time. 

Nubank is the largest fintech bank in Latin America, with over 80 million customers in Brazil.

Underperforming Nu stocks are Buffett’s other