Michael Saylor is not just a Bitcoin maximalist: ‘There’s a place for everybody’
The MicroStrategy CEO sees Ethereum as a serious competitor to the financial industry.
MicroStrategy chief Michael Saylor has room in his heart for other cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin, the billionaire revealed on an episode of CNBC’s Fast Money, in which he aired his views on the industry and where he sees things going in the future.
In the interview with CNBC’s senior retail reporter Courtney Reagan on Tuesday, Saylor was initially asked why the software firm keeps buying BTC. The question referred to the company’s June 14 announcement it may sell up to $1 billion worth of stock for further BTC acquisitions.
Saylor described Bitcoin as “digital gold on a big tech network,” predicting it will be adopted by billions of people worldwide.
Thanks @CourtReagan & @GuyAdami for inviting me on @CNBCFastMoney to discuss our #Bitcoin strategy, increasing institutional adoption of BTC vs. Gold as an inflation hedge, $MSTR capital markets strategy, and the future of the crypto-industry. https://t.co/OY3wtGNna0
— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) June 15, 2021
Perhaps the most interesting comments in the interview however came when Fast Money co-host Guy Adami bought up the topic of “Bitcoin maximalism” after Googling the term. He probed Saylor for his thoughts on Ethereum an asking if there was room in the firm’s strategy for ETH too.
Saylor said he saw Bitcoin as “digital property” and the most valuable and dominant network, comparing it to the building block foundations of the ecosystem:
“Think of it as like granite blocks in cyber Manhattan. Then you’ve got digital currency that is like Tether and stablecoins, they want to be money markets in cyberspace … Then you’ve got digital applications like Ethereum.”
He added that “Ethereum wants to dematerialize the JP Morgan building and the banking establishment and all of the exchanges,”
He asserted that there was a place for different crypto assets, adding: “I think that as the market starts to understand these things, there’s a place for everybody.”
The software firm CEO did not suggest the company would be making any moves to buy up Ethereum or any other crypto assets in the near future, however.
Related: MicroStrategy stock slides after announcing new $400M debt raise to buy Bitcoin
In a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, MicroStrategy said it would be launching an “at the market” securities offering, which would allow it to sell up to $1 billion of its stock over time.
On June 9, the firm announced that it had completed its $500 million offering of secured notes, and said it plans to use the proceeds to purchase more Bitcoin.
Saylor outlined his thinking in a poll of his 1.2 million Twitter followers, asking them whether they thought BTC prices would exceed 6.125% over the next seven years (which is how much MicroStrategy has to pay back to bond buyers over the period). Ninety percent of the 105,000 respondents had voted yes at the time of writing.
Do you expect the price of #bitcoin to appreciate more than 6.125% annually over the next seven years?
— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) June 15, 2021
Bitcoin Treasuries reports that MicroStrategy currently holds 92,079 BTC which is worth $3.68 billion at current prices.