Former Microstrategy CEO and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor believes the fallout of FTX could actually benefit Bitcoin and spark 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 there is a 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 more rapidly,” he said.
When addressing the collapse of FTX, the Bitcoin enthusiast argued that the exchange failed as a result of a lack of transparency. According to Saylor, if a company holds cryptocurrency assets, they should be “nobody else’s liability.”
Saylor also warned that the recent developments around FTX will surely attract more regulatory scrutiny. However, he said if regulators move too aggressively in response to FTX’s implosion, it would harm the industry.
“I think it’s definitely going to strengthen the hand of the regulators. It’s going to accelerate their intervention. There’s a regressive regulation, which is to say, you can’t really do anything, and that’ll contract the industry,” he said.
Saylor also noted 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 all negative like enforcement, but the marketplace 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, has also been 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 reserve since late 2020, investing millions of dollars in the flagship cryptocurrency in a bid to hedge against inflation and diversify its portfolio.
The company currently holds around 130,000 BTC, worth over $2.1 billion at current rates. 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 by more than $1,8 billion on its Bitcoin investment.
The poor performance of Bitcoin has also negatively impacted MicroStrategy shares, which closed the last trading day down by more than 19%. The company’s shares are down by 69% YTD.
However, the recent price crash has not affected Saylor’s optimism around the flagship cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin will be the winner because Bitcoin is a digital commodity and it’s the least controversial of everything,” he said in the interview.
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