Billionaire Michael Saylor Says Bitcoin Will Top After FTX Collapse
Former CEO of Microstrategy and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor believes that the fallout of FTX could actually benefit Bitcoin and trigger further growth in the crypto industry.
Saylor, who joined CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ last week, said the turbulence and market volatility will benefit Bitcoin and a “handful” of other coins as it will eliminate thousands of useless cryptocurrencies.
“If it’s progressive regulation, then I think you’ll see, you won’t see 20,000 tokens, you’ll see a handful, dozens, but they’ll be properly registered tokens. The industry is going to grow much faster,” he said .
Addressing the collapse of FTX, the Bitcoin enthusiast claimed that the exchange failed as a result of a lack of transparency. According to Saylor, if a company has cryptocurrency assets, they should be “no one else’s responsibility.”
Saylor also warned that the latest developments surrounding FTX are sure to attract more regulatory scrutiny. However, he said that if regulators move too aggressively in response to FTX’s implosion, it would hurt the industry.
“I think it’s definitely going to strengthen the hand of the regulators. It’s going to speed up their intervention. It’s a regressive regulation, meaning you can’t really do anything and it will drag the industry down,” he said.
Saylor also noted that there is a need for US regulators to clearly lay out how crypto activities can come into compliance. “The regulatory intervention of late has been negative in terms of enforcement, but the market is waiting for the regulators to say this is how you register a digital currency,” he added.
As reported, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last week. Notably, FTX US, the US arm of the crypto exchange, is also included in the proceedings, despite claims by the former CEO that their US exchange was fine.
Microstrategy now holds around 130,000 BTC
Microstrategy has been acquiring and holding Bitcoin as a treasury since late 2020, investing millions of dollars in the flagship cryptocurrency in an effort to hedge against inflation and diversify its portfolio.
The company currently has about 130,000 BTC, worth over $2.1 billion at today’s exchange rate. The average purchase price was $30,623 per coin with a total cost of $3.981 billion, according to data accumulated by Buy Bitcoin Worldwide. Therefore, the company is currently down more than $1.8 billion on its Bitcoin investment.
The poor performance of Bitcoin has also negatively affected MicroStrategy shares, which closed the last trading day down more than 19%. The company’s shares are down 69% YTD.
However, the recent price crash has not affected Saylor’s optimism about the flagship cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin will be the winner because Bitcoin is a digital commodity and it is the least controversial of all,” he said in the interview.
