Billionaire investor Charlie Munger compares crypto to a venereal disease — and says the US should ban it

• Charlie Munger compared crypto to a venereal disease during Daily Journal's annual meeting.
• Warren Buffett's right-hand man said crypto appeals to criminals and should be banned.

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger compared cryptocurrencies to sexually transmitted infections, and said he was proud to not own the digital assets, during Daily Journal's annual meeting on Wednesday.

"I certainly didn't invest in crypto. I'm proud of the fact I've avoided it," the newspaper publisher's chairman said. "It's like some venereal disease or something."

Warren Buffett's 98-year-old business partner, who is the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said crypto should have been outlawed in the US, and once again praised China for clamping down on it.

"I wish it had been banned immediately, and I admire the Chinese for banning it. I think they were right and we've been wrong to allow it," Munger said.

The billionaire investor said some people welcome crypto due to its usefulness in crimes like extortions, kidnappings, and tax evasion. He said it was crazy that everyone wants to create their own cryptocurrency, and called the rampant speculating on coins a "wretched excess."

However, Munger was more receptive to the idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) from the Federal Reserve, noting that money is already transmitted digitally between bank accounts.

"We've got a digital currency already, it's called a bank account. The banks are all integrated into the Federal Reserve system," he said.

Munger has been a vocal critic of crypto in the past and called out people involved in it. He has said before that he wouldn't want anyone involved in crypto to marry into his family.

"I just regard it as beneath contempt," he said during the Wednesday meeting.

Cryptocurrencies boomed last year, attracting both retail and institutional investors, and they hit an overall market capitalization of near $3 trillion in November 2021, according to CoinMarketCap data. But it has since fallen to $1.9 trillion after digital currencies slumped alongside stocks in January.