Bitcoin backs away from $10,000 after Buffett, Gates criticism

Bitcoin prices dropped Monday following criticism from some of the investment world's best-known billionaires.

The cryptocurrency hit a low of $9,188.66 Monday after climbing above $9,900 over the weekend, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin has recovered roughly 40 percent from the lows around $6,700 last month but has been unable to break the $10,000 level.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEOWarren Buffett piled on his recent bitcoin criticism Monday and told CNBC the "asset itself is creating nothing."

"When you're buying nonproductive assets, all you're counting on is the next person is going to pay you more because they're even more excited about another next person coming along," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" from Omaha, following Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting.

Over the weekend, Buffett had called bitcoin "probably rat poison squared," while Berkshire Chairman Charlie Munger said during the annual meeting that trading in cryptocurrencies is "just dementia."

Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates told CNBC in the same interview Monday that he would bet against bitcoin if he could.

"As an asset class, you're not producing anything and so you shouldn't expect it to go up. It's kind of a pure 'greater fool theory' type of investment," Gates said. "I would short it if there was an easy way to do it."

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Read more:

• Bitcoin is changing hands for $24,000 in Iran, based on the “Official” exchange rate
• Tendayi Kapfidze: “bitcoin is a pyramid scheme
• Want to Invest in Crypto? Think About Buying Stocks
• According to this rumor: A single Bitcoin whale was responsible for the astronomical price hike in 2017
• Libra faces strong opposition and China embarks on a race to launch its own global cryptocurrency