Michael Saylor isn’t concerned about China’s latest wave of Bitcoin and crypto bans.
The MicroStrategy chief executive tells Bill Barhydt, the CEO of crypto wealth management firm Abra, in a new interview that he was an early shareholder in Google, Facebook, and Twitter. He says he didn’t let Chinese regulations bother him back then and doesn’t plan to now.
“If you had dumped the shares of Google, Facebook and Twitter in 2010 because you heard that China was going to ban it, you would’ve lost obscene amounts of money. Trillions of dollars have been made on technologies banned by China. I think that what China does is largely irrelevant here, and of course, it’s kind of getting to be laughable because like every quarter for the last five, six, seven years, there’s been a China banning thing.”
Last week, China announced it was banning virtually all activity related to the cryptocurrency industry.
In a document co-signed by numerous state institutions, the Chinese government cited fraud and other illegal activities it associates with crypto as rationale for the crackdown.
Saylor says he isn’t concerned about the move’s impact on BTC’s price over the long term. However, he also says if investors aren’t willing to hold Bitcoin for a decade then they shouldn’t hold it for 10 minutes.
By contrast, he thinks the US approach to the biggest cryptocurrency is largely positive.
“I actually think that if you look at every statement by a central banker or by regulators, they’re pretty clear: Bitcoin is property. Bitcoin is [a] commodity… I haven’t seen any regulator actually debate that Bitcoin is a digital store of value…
I think that regulation is coming to securities, and it’s regulation related to [whether you’re] abiding by securities laws, [whether you’re] abiding by tax laws, and that kind of compliance will continue. But digital property in the form of Bitcoin isn’t really disputed by anybody. If you looked at the Senate hearings that they had last week, there was broad-based consensus. Every single senator, their body language, and what they said indicated that they’re supportive of Bitcoin and the crypto industry in general. Everybody just wants it to be regulated appropriately, and I think the regulators have agreed.”
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