Anand Sinha
2 min read
Legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who recently stepped down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after 60 years of service, is well-known for influencing a generation of entrepreneurs such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Pershing Square founder Bill Ackman.
Often referred to as the "Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett's sage advice is paid heed to by the younger generations of CEOs as well.
Yoni Assia, founder and CEO of the Israel-based trading and investment firm eToro (Nasdaq: ETOR), recently revealed that it was Berkshire Hathaway founder who "actually convinced" him to focus more on stocks and less on crypto.
Assia made the revelation while speaking on CNBC's ‘Squawk Box’ on May 15, a day after eToro made its Nasdaq debut.
Buffett's dislike of crypto is public knowledge, as he once referred to Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared” and another time called it a “gambling token.” Understandably, Berkshire Hathaway has never invested in crypto.
During the interview, the eToro CEO said that the firm was very early to crypto. In fact, it was the first regulated company in Europe to launch crypto trading, he said.
Assia also reflected on the decision to pull back from the plan to go public in 2011 and said it was a lesson, as he learned that it was important for a company to become profitable before going public. It was therefore the right decision to wait longer in order to become profitable to go public now, he added.
"Nobody doubts that crypto is here to stay," Assia underlined. He further claimed that while crypto accounted for 25% of the company's revenue last year, stocks accounted for 75% of the revenue.
ETOR made its Nasdaq debut on May 14 with the IPO price of $52 a share but opened at $69.69 before surging to $74.28.
The stock was trading at $64.40 at the time of writing, down 3.83% since the last day's close.
