Billionaire investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel has labelled Warren Buffett a “sociopathic grandpa” who is part of a “gerontocracy” trying to halt the spread of Bitcoin.

Speaking at the annual Bitcoin conference in Miami, Mr Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and counts SpaceX and Stripe among his investments, said older business figures including the 90-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” Mr Buffett were deliberately trampling on the dreams of the next generation.

Mr Thiel said: “I think the sociopathic grandpa from Omaha is the most honest and direct in it [trying to halt the spread of Bitcoin].

“It is the finance gerontocracy that runs the country versus a revolutionary youth movement. And we have to go out from this conference and take over the world.”

Mr Thiel displayed pictures of top businessmen to the Miami crowd, saying JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink, boss of BlackRock, were part of Mr Buffett’s apparent conspiracy against Bitcoin.

The executives are, according to Mr Thiel, top of his “enemies list”.

Mr Thiel made a significant part of his estimated $5.2bn (£4bn) fortune from Bitcoin through his Founders Fund firm, according to the Wall Street Journal. He was one of the longest-serving members of Facebook-owner Meta’s board until February when he quit to reportedly focus on supporting Donald Trump in November’s midterm elections.