MicroStrategy Inc. Chairman Michael Saylor spoke with podcast presenter Natalie Brunell on Bitcoin and other issues at Bitcoin Atlantis in Madeira, Portugal. The freshly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs and their capacity to compete with other top asset classes and ETFs were discussed.
"We thought that maybe Bitcoin was a competitor to gold, but it has actually run up the leaderboard, and now it's starting to nip at the heels of the S&P 500 Index ETFs," said Saylor.
Some investors regard bitcoin and gold as inflation hedges due to their restricted supply. Gold has been around for millennia, yet Bitcoin is only 15 years old. Saylor no longer considers gold the key investment opponent to Bitcoin due to its rapid ascent.
Instead, Saylor thinks Bitcoin can compete with the world's largest ETFs, like SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF.
The S&P 500 dwarfs Bitcoin in market cap. Its market valuation exceeds Bitcoin's $1.3 trillion at $40 trillion. However, Saylor believes Bitcoin's recent performance may indicate that it is ready to compete with the world's top funds.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says the spot Bitcoin ETFs began less than two months ago but have already reached $50 billion in total assets. ETF inflows were record in their first 30 days.
These ETFs gave 99% of mainstream investors financial understanding, opportunity, and functionality. That's vital to the network, Saylor said. The largest institutional Bitcoin holders are Saylor and Microstrategy, who have accumulated 193,000 Bitcoins over several years. Total investment is grown over 100% to $13.5 billion.
Saylor does not expect the company to sell soon despite the good investment. Saylor replied, "Bitcoin is the exit strategy." Saylor is taking on debt to buy more Bitcoin and does not see an exit soon. To buy more Bitcoin, MicroStrategy offered $700 million of convertible senior notes.
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