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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is recouping some of the losses it faced during the global market sell-off earlier in the week. MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor (MSTR) joins Market Domination to discuss the movement and why he is so bullish on the cryptocurrency.
"Bitcoin is the only truly global capital market in the world, and so if you think about the volatility of it, the volatility is the price that you pay in order to create billions of dollars of credit and liquidity at your fingertips, all times, everywhere for everybody. And so on Sunday night, all the other capital markets are closed. Bitcoin is the only capital market that's functioning. What you saw over the past week is that it's functioning really, really well. And that is the secret to the success of the asset class," Saylor tells Yahoo Finance.
Despite its dip earlier in the week, Saylor sees the volatility as a sign of high energy. He adds, "The future is digital, right? There's a race to own cyberspace. That being the case, empires are built on productive property, and they're defended by firepower, naval power, air power, nuclear power, and digital power. Bitcoin's digital power. You want bitcoin. You want to own cyberspace... It's a good investment." He notes that bitcoin has appreciated 55% a year over the past four years, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is appreciating 13% and bonds are depreciating 5%.
Bitcoin recouping some of its losses from earlier in the week, the cryptocurrency trading above 60,000 as the crypto market tries to find its footing from Monday's selloff. Bitcoin bull, MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor joins us now. Michael, it is great to have you on the show. I want to start Michael with just the moves we saw this week. You know, we're rallying here now. Briefly topped 62,000. We did have that selloff though earlier in the week, Michael. I'm just curious, what do you think explained that? What was going on there? Was that just, you know, investors see Bitcoin as a, you know, a very speculative asset? Was it margin calls? What was going on in your opinion?
I mean, well, I mean, Bitcoin is the only truly global capital market in the world. And so if you think about the volatility of it, the volatility is the price that you pay in order to create billions of dollars of credit and liquidity at your fingertips all times everywhere for everybody. And so on Sunday night, all the other capital markets are closed. Bitcoin is the only capital market that's functioning. What you saw over the past week is that it's functioning really, really well, and that that is the secret to the success of the asset class.
Let me get your thoughts, Michael, though on, you know, the critics are out in force, right? You know that. Column from the Washington Post, and the title was, when markets get scary, crypto proves its worthlessness, and talking about that selloff earlier in the week, Michael, the columnist goes on to say, Bitcoin dropped by 15%. This is not how a hedge against inflation or disaster acts. Give me your response, Michael, to that.
You know, volatility is a sign of high energy. Rivers, waterfalls, fires, wind storms, they're volatile. They have massive amounts of energy. Niagara Falls is a scary place if you're going to play in the pool. 5,000 people have died in Niagara Falls playing with it over the past hundred years, but it generates 5 gigawatts of power. That's 7 million horsepower. That's 33 million people working as hard as they can. So if you're going to harness the energy as an engineer, then you want the volatility. And if you're a tourist and you're playing in the water, you know, taking selfies, then it's scary. No one that understands Bitcoin is afraid of the volatility.
Okay. Well, Michael, I want to switch gears a little bit because crypto has sort of become this political football this election cycle. I'm curious, are you advising either candidate or either campaign on crypto policy?
I'm advising everybody in the world that Bitcoin is digital capital. There's a revolution in the global capital markets and traditional finance operates, you know, 19% of the time for 10% of the world. That makes it a 2% solution. Bitcoin's a 100% solution. It's not partisan. It's just a good idea.
Michael Michael Michael Michael Michael let me just be a little bit more direct with you. Have you spoken with either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump specifically?
I speak with both Democrats and Republicans.
Have you spoken to either of them in the past say month?
I don't share my conversations that I have in private confidence with anyone in the world.
Okay, fair enough. Let's say that you were on a hypothetical phone call with either of them. What would you be telling them that your dream is for crypto policy moving forward?
The future is digital, right? There's a race to own cyberspace. That being the case, empires are built on productive property and they're defended by firepower, naval power, air power, nuclear power, and digital power. Bitcoin's digital power. You want Bitcoin. You want to own cyberspace. You want the most digital power just like you want nuclear power, air power, and space power. It's a good investment, like buying Alaska, or like the Louisiana Purchase, and it's also essential to national security.
Which candidate is better for crypto?
I think that again, crypto is I'm not going to comment on anything political at this point. I'm going to say, it's just a good idea to support digital assets and digital capital for any nation state, any political party, any politician. It will be a factor in November in the elections. I have no doubt.
I'm not I won't try to get you to comment on anything specifically political, Michael, but I am going to get your take on on this, which is that it does seem like at this moment that it's that crypto is breaking hard along ideological lines. You know, I mean, Trump, certainly, you know, you see him speaking at the Bitcoin conference, you know, talks about making Bitcoin great again. You know, is that good for crypto or long term, do you think, you know, do you really need friends on both sides of the political aisle?
I think Bitcoin is digital capital, right? The world's going to be remade. There's a digital transformation in finance taking place. Everybody on Wall Street understands it. Everybody in Capitol Hill understands it. Everybody on Main Street understands it. It's like electricity or fire or the internet. I can't imagine that a nation-state, a company, a government, or any particular family even is going to be successful without embracing technology.
I have kind of an investor psychology question for you, Michael, too. It just interests me. I'm curious how you kind of stay, you know, calm and cool and collected and committed to Bitcoin even when you have these selloffs, because that's tough for some people, Michael. You know, they see their investment get banged up, and oftentimes, the first instinct is, you know, you get nervous. You want to slam the sell button. How do you kind of how do you navigate that? How do you actually keep your emotions in check?
Well, first of all, Bitcoin's been appreciating at 55% a year for the past four years. Bonds are depreciating 5% a year. The S&P is appreciating at about 13% a year. It's amazing to me that people would would rather have a 20% ARR with 20 vol than 55 ARR with 55 vol. But yeah, if you're if you think about it, it's pretty obvious you want the 50% return, not the 20% return. So if you're going to embrace the future, embrace digital transformation, it's going to be more volatile, it's going to be higher performance, but but that's the future. So I don't get upset because I know we're winning, and Bitcoin's winning. It's pretty obvious to anyone that, you know, can chart the thing that there's a right answer and there's a wrong answer.
Michael, safe to assume you bought the dip this week?
We're buying all the time. We're buying every quarter. We're buying the lows, the mids, the highs, you know, I'll be buying the top forever because I'm expecting Bitcoin will continue to appreciate as digital capital. I think I think physical capital, real estate capital, financial capital, people are going to sell those things, and they're going to move their money into digital capital, and it's going to be a trend for a long, long time to come.
A trend that you've certainly been at the helm of as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate your time again. That was Michael Saylor.
He closes, "We're buying all the time. We're buying every quarter. We're buying the lows, the mids, the highs. You know, I'll be buying the top forever because I'm expecting bitcoin will continue to appreciate as digital capital."
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl