Billionaire investor Warren Buffett in an interview with CNBC on Monday said buyers of bitcoin, which he has characterized as “rat poison squared,” thrive on the hope they’ll find other people who will pay more for it.

Further, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Mr. Buffett said that the mystique behind the cryptocurrency has driven a surge in its price.

“It does create a rising price, creates more buyers…if you don’t understand it, you get much more excited. People like to speculate, they like to gamble.”

Bill Gates, who is a board member at Berkshire Hathaway Inc, also shares Mr. Buffett’s viewpoint and said that “I would short bitcoin if there was an easy way to do it. 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.”

After the two world’s richest men shared their views on bitcoin, the prices of cryptocurrencies fell down drastically. Bitcoin is down 1.2% over the previous 24 hours, Ethereum went down 3.5%, and Litecoin is down 1.9%

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