In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor discussed the prospect of bitcoin. He spoke about bitcoin’s institutional adoption, crypto legislation, price fluctuations, gold versus bitcoin, and BTC as the world’s dominant crypto currency and safe-haven investment. His company currently has 114,042 BTC in its possession. He was questioned if he planned to keep piling bitcoin at the current price or allow time for a further drop. “We’re planning to continue piling indefinitely,” he replied.
Saylor was asked if he understands “bitcoin has supplemented, will replace, or is in the process of replacing gold as the measure of value for most investors.” Highlighting bitcoin’s benefits over gold, including ease of transfer and low storage costs, he stated: “It’s fairly apparent that bitcoin is winning, gold is losing… and it’s looking to stay…”
It’s clear that digital gold will supplant physical gold in the coming decade. “I’m not at all disturbed with the legislation that is currently taking place now,” Saylor said of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill’s contentious crypto provision.
“The safe haven for institutions is to use bitcoin as a store of wealth,” he clarified, asserting that “Bitcoin is the only moral, technological, and lawful safe haven in the entire cryptocurrency environment.”
It was stated by the pro-bitcoin Microstrategy CEO that the cryptocurrency legislation now being considered in Washington would “have an influence on security tokens, defi [decentralised finance] exchanges, cryptocurrency exchanges, and all the other applications of cryptocurrency that are not bitcoin.”
Saylor was also questioned on what he thinks to be a realistic price objective for bitcoin and if he believes the cryptocurrency would be valued $1 million per coin in the future. He said that if bitcoin doubles annually, it would have flipped gold by the end of the decade, and then it will eclipse monetary indexes, a little bit of bonds, a little bit of real estate, a little bit of equities, and appear as a $100 trillion asset class. “As a result, it is 100 times greater than it is today.”
“Once we’re there, it will account for 5 percent to 7 percent of the global economy,” he concluded.
The United States dollar will most likely replace 150 other currencies. Perhaps there will just be 2 or 3 people remaining. There might be three currencies: the euro, the Chinese yuan, and the dollar. Everything else is almost certainly going to be eliminated. And then bitcoin will be the world’s monetary index, as it has been since 2009.
If you merely want to retain your money and do not want to communicate a credit sentiment, an equity feeling, or a property or real estate attitude, you might do so by saying, “I don’t care.”
Finally, Saylor was questioned on how countries would react to the scenario he depicted, as well as if bitcoin is irreversible or whether reaching the stage he predicted will be dependent on government action. “I believe bitcoin is unstoppable as a kind of digital property,” he said.
He then went on to explain that there would be three different categories of nations. He said that communist regimes, such as North Korea, “would not provide you property rights” and “will not allow you to possess anything,” and that “they will almost certainly prohibit you from doing so.”
The second group of nations is comprised of those with weak currencies. “There will be capital restrictions in place. Despite the fact that they will allow you to possess it, they do not want you to swap or trade it,” Saylor said. In his subsequent remarks, he said that “it is not unlawful to hold bitcoin in China. They just do not want billions of dollars to leave their economy as a result of your actions.”
The third group consists of western countries with strong currencies, such as the US dollar, as well as emerging markets. “Of course, it’s going to be considered property,” Saylor said. “When you sell it, you will have to pay capital gains tax.”