tl;dr
Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategy, proposed the U.S. purchasing 20% of the Bitcoin supply to pay off the national debt and strengthen the dollar. He warned of other nations acquiring a significant portion of Bitcoin and highlighted Strategy's large Bitcoin holdings. However, skeptics, including...
Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Strategy, has proposed the U.S. purchasing 20% of the Bitcoin supply to pay off the national debt and strengthen the dollar. However, skeptics, including David Gerard and Christian Catalini, question the feasibility and benefits of a national Bitcoin reserve. They argue that it could undermine the dollar's status and be a risky business strategy for companies like Strategy.
Saylor has suggested that the U.S. could purchase 20% of the Bitcoin supply “for free,” and that owning 4 to 6 million BTC would “pay off the entire national debt.” He emphasized that not pursuing such a policy would risk the U.S. falling behind other nations. Saylor’s remarks come as several U.S. states move closer to mandating their own Bitcoin reserves, and a month after President Donald Trump signed an order creating a working group that will consider the possibility of a federal Bitcoin reserve.
Saylor’s firm – the recently rebranded Strategy – holds over 430,000 BTC, giving it the largest Bitcoin holdings of any publicly traded company worldwide. Saylor had previously pitched a Bitcoin reserve strategy to Microsoft’s board of directors, suggesting that the tech giant could create as much as $5 trillion in shareholder value by accumulating BTC. However, so far, neither Microsoft nor any other Big Tech firm has taken Saylor’s advice.
Longtime crypto skeptic and author David Gerard, along with MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab founder Christian Catalini, express doubt on whether a national Bitcoin reserve would ever happen or be prudent. Catalini argues that Bitcoin doesn’t meet the necessary criteria for a reserve asset and that stockpiling Bitcoin would harm the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.
Concerns have been raised over Strategy's alleged leveraging of Bitcoin into a proxy for dollars, potentially impacting its business strategy. Such an alleged strategy has precedent within the cryptocurrency industry, with warnings about potential negative outcomes.