Berkshire Hathaway is bullish on Nubank, the Brazilian neobank co-founded by Colombian David Vélez and popular among Bitcoin and crypto investors in the country. The American multinational conglomerate holding company has increased its stake in Nubank while divested part of its shares in payment giant Visa and Mastercard.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate reported that it had bought Nubank Class A shares for a total amount of US$1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, it disposed of part of its Visa and Mastercard shares, selling US$1.8 billion and US$1.3 billion in shares of these brands, respectively.
Berkshire Hathaway is known for its control and leadership by Warren Buffett, who serves as chairman and chief executive, and Charlie Munger, the company’s vice chairman. Both the iconic investors have been big critic of Bitcoin and crypto.
Warren Buffett boasts a net worth of $114 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, placing him in seventh place on that list.
Although Buffett has been characterized by his caution when investing, especially in the most popular sectors of the market such as fintech, this new financial move shows that the businessman would be turning towards new trends.
But, the things have changed in the past two years both in terms of adoption and regulation. There seems to be a wider acceptance among policy makers and they are now trying to understand this new space.
At the same time, these moves are part of the race that the American businesses has to bet on fintech, moving away from traditional credit companies.
It is worth remembering that at the time Buffett had minimized his holdings in decentralized financial solutions, such as bitcoin, calling it an asset that “does not create anything”.
Berkshire Hathaway had invested US$500 million in Nubank in July 2021 and the returns on this investment amounted to US$150 million in December 2021, after Nubank was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
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