German-born start-up supporter and Paypal founder Peter Thiel has described famous investor Warren Buffett, and the CEOs of American bank JP Morgan and the world's largest wealth manager Blackrock, Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink, as members of a "financial gerontocracy" that conspired against the “revolutionary youth movement” surrounding bitcoin.
In his keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on Thursday, Thiel blamed these financial managers, among others, for the digital currency not yet having reached the equivalent of $100,000 - a price target with cult status among die-hard Bitcoin fans.
"What does it take for us to get there?" Thiel asked the audience.
The now 91-year-old Buffett, whom Thiel called a "sociopathic grandfather", Dimon (66) and Fink (69) are in any case partly responsible for the fact that this price has not yet been reached.
All three have repeatedly said they are skeptical about Bitcoin or digital assets in general.
Blackrock declined to comment on Thiel's comments when asked.
However, a spokesman referred to Fink's letter to shareholders last month, in which he wrote that a well-designed digital payment system "can improve the processing of international transactions while reducing the risk of money laundering and corruption."
Digital currencies can also help reduce the cost of cross-border payments, Fink wrote.
JP Morgan declined to comment, and a representative from Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
Bitcoin was trading little changed at $43,599 early Friday.
Thiel, 54, also accused the trio of using investment rules geared towards environmental, social and governance goals as a “hate factory” to attack Bitcoin and certain companies.
Thiel, who was born in Frankfurt and supported the election campaigns of Donald Trump and Republican politicians financially and through public appearances, also attacked US Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell.
"Mr. Powell - people like that - should be extremely grateful to Bitcoin because it is the last warning they will get," Thiel said.
"They chose to ignore it and they will face the consequences for years to come."