MAY 5, 2018THE STARTING POINT
A little rat poison.
- Buffett's estimated fortune
- ~$84.0B
- A hypothetical allocation
- 3%
- Into Bitcoin
- $2.52B
- Bitcoin daily closing price
- $9,858.15
- Bitcoin acquired
- ~255.6K BTC
BITCOIN PRICE × WARREN BUFFETT
RAT
POISON².
Same Buffett. Different universe.
On May 5, 2018, Warren Buffett called Bitcoin
“probably rat poison squared.”
What if he'd put just 3% on it?
BITCOIN / USD LIVE
—Live feed + 10s fallbackBUFFETT TODAY EST.
—Estimate unavailableIF HE'D BOUGHT 3% IN BTC
Loading…
Hypothetical · bought May 5, 20183% scenario · opportunity-cost-adjusted
THE ORACLE OF OMAHA.In another timeline.
THE BITCOIN STASH255,626 BTCFrom a $2.52B investment in 2018
THAT STASH TODAY—Waiting for Bitcoin price
Connecting to market
01 / THE FORK IN THE ROAD
The $2.52 billion decision.
One quote. Two timelines. A very different balance sheet.
THE ALTERNATE PRESENTHYPOTHETICAL
A different kind of fortune.
- Bitcoin position value
- —
- Remaining 97% of actual estimate
- —
- Hypothetical total
- —
- Actual wealth estimate
- —
- Difference
- —
02 / YOUR ALTERNATE UNIVERSEWhat if he
What if he
bought a little more?
Hindsight is a beautiful calculator.
Pick an allocation. Rewrite the hypothetical.
0.1% · a taste10% · a conviction
HIS HYPOTHETICAL NET WORTHAwaiting priceResults appear when market data is available.
Original investment$2.52B
Bitcoin acquired255,626 BTC
BTC value today—
Opportunity-cost-adjusted · updates with BTC price · See assumptions ↗
Probably rat poison squared.
WARREN BUFFETT — MAY 5, 2018
At that day's $9,858.15 close, 3% of an estimated $84 billion fortune
would have bought roughly 255,600 Bitcoin.
Why “rat poison squared”?
On May 5, 2018, CNBC’s Becky Quick reported Warren Buffett’s description of Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared,” ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting. It amplified Charlie Munger’s earlier “rat poison” comparison. CNBC notes that those exact words were not spoken on stage. Read CNBC’s account ↗
In a May 7 interview, Buffett explained his objection: he regarded cryptocurrencies as nonproductive assets, with buyers depending on someone else paying a higher price. His criticism concerned how an asset creates value, not just its next price move. Watch the follow-up interview ↗
Our calculator starts on the date of the remark and asks a narrower question: what would a hypothetical 3% allocation have done to his estimated wealth? A favorable result in hindsight does not make the investment risk-free or predict its future.
A quote. A calculator. A what if.
RatPoison2.com is an independent data visualization that pairs the live Bitcoin price with a dated estimate of Warren Buffett’s net worth. It explores an investment scenario; it does not report an actual Bitcoin purchase by Buffett.
The headline always models a 3% allocation from an estimated $84 billion fortune in 2018. The remaining 97% follows the proportional path of his actual wealth estimate. You can change the allocation in the calculator and inspect the sources, formula and limitations.
Market prices update automatically. The net-worth estimate is checked hourly against Forbes and labeled with its source date; failed refreshes are marked as last known. The Buffett portrait is AI-generated satire. This project is not affiliated with Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway or the cited data providers, and it does not offer investment advice.
Context reviewed September 19, 2026.
03 / SHOW YOUR WORK
Good memes. Honest math.
The joke is the premise. The assumptions are right here.
Same fortune. Different allocation.
We take 3% out of Buffett's estimated 2018 wealth, buy Bitcoin at that day's closing price, and hold it. We assume the other 97% follows the proportional path of his actual fortune.
97% × actual wealth estimate+255,626 BTC × current BTC price
= HYPOTHETICAL WEALTH
The BTC quantity above is rounded for readability. Every calculation uses the full, unrounded quantity.
Where do the numbers come from?+
The quote is dated May 5, 2018 (CNBC). We use the scenario's approximate $84B starting fortune and the $9,858.15 daily Bitcoin close (StatMuse). The $84B figure is a historical baseline, not a precise quote-day account balance.
Current wealth: Sourced estimate is temporarily unavailable. Bitcoin prices stream from Coinbase Exchange, usually updating within five seconds of a change. If the stream is unavailable, we check our Coinbase/CoinGecko fallback every 10 seconds; backup data and provider failures use a longer cache. The tab price updates directly from the feed, even in the background. A browser that fully suspends a tab or a sleeping device can still pause updates.
Why subtract the opportunity cost?+
The Bitcoin investment has to come from somewhere. Our main calculation removes that allocation's share of today's actual wealth before adding the Bitcoin position.
The simpler method adds only Bitcoin profit to today's fortune: actual wealth + BTC value − original investment. At the canonical 3% allocation, that would give a result once live data loads, versus the adjusted result with our primary method. It differs because the initial money would otherwise have remained invested.
What does this leave out?+
Taxes, trading slippage, market impact, custody costs, donations, changes to Berkshire ownership, and the effect a $2.52B Bitcoin purchase could have had on the market. We assume buy-and-hold throughout. This is a simplified counterfactual, not a reconstruction of Buffett's portfolio or a forecast.
Is any of this actually real?+
The quote and market prices are real. The investment and resulting fortune are hypothetical. The Buffett portrait is AI-generated satire. This site has no affiliation with Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, or the cited data providers.