In a scorched-earth keynote speech, billionaire investor Peter Thiel criticized ESG supporters and crypto critics Thursday at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Fla.
“The finance gerontocracy that runs the country through whatever silly virtue-signaling slash hate factory term like ESG they have, versus what I would call, what we have to think of as a revolutionary youth movement.”
The famously divisive venture capitalist took aim at investing icons Warren Buffett and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, among others, calling the former “the sociopathic grandpa from Omaha.”
Referencing environmental, Social, and Governance investing specifically, Thiel didn’t hold back.
“I think that ESG is a hate factory, it’s a factory for naming enemies,” the PayPal founder said. “What’s the difference between ESG and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]?”
“Perhaps the real enemy is ESG,” he added.
Calling Buffett, Fink, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon a “gerontocracy,” he flashed darkened, unflattering pictures of each on keynote screens to punctuate his point that each was part of the establishment cryptocurrency is looking to disrupt.
“We’re going to expose all of them,” Thiel threatened. “The finance gerontocracy that runs the country through whatever silly virtue-signaling slash hate factory term like ESG they have, versus what I would call, what we have to think of as a revolutionary youth movement.”
Environmental impact
Aside from concerns over cryptocurrency’s role as the “hot, new thing” that could fuel bubbles and hurt investors, critics point to the environmental impact that Bitcoin mining creates.
“In the U.S., Bitcoin mining creates an estimated 40 billion pounds of carbon emissions,” Business Insider reports. “The proof of work mining requires a lot of computing power which uses amounts of electricity capable of powering countries. The cryptocurrency industry is looking to reduce 100% of its carbon emissions by 2030.”
High-profile politicians have also criticized digital currency, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., noting its unregulated nature.
“There’s a reason that crypto takes hold in some areas because the banks have continued to impose fees on transactions at a time when the cost of transactions should be dropping fast,” she said in March. “However, substituting an unregulated, unverified system in which scammers and cheats and terrorists mix in with ordinary consumers, and no one can tell who’s on the other side of a transaction is not a safe substitute.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
