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When bitcoin (BTC) was at $0.30, Hal Finney wrote in December 2010, “there is a very good reason for bitcoin-backed banks to exist.”
Fast-forward 14 years, and Michael Saylor announced that his MicroStrategy (MSTR) “endgame is to be the leading bitcoin bank.”
Outranked only by Satoshi Nakamoto, Blackrock’s IBIT ETF, and vanishingly few other holders of bitcoin (BTC), Saylor’s company holds 3% of the circulating supply in its $65 billion treasury.
Given the size of his asset base, Saylor has a market-leading ability to fractionalize its reserve for a substantial population of prospective banking customers.
For context, MicroStrategy’s treasury is roughly equal to the deposit base of banks like Comerica or Santander — and it plans to continue increasing its size.
112 sats \ 0 replies \ @Riberet 9h
MSTR and Michael Saylor, It's not the bank Hal Finney dreamed of, it's a scam and a ponzi
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I don't know why people keep on saying that MSTR is a ponzi and have such distrust in its chairman. It sounds like you guys are in the Anarchist Monotheistic Church of Distrust or something. Saylor is only exposing how ponzi the fiat system really is.
Basically you can give creditors a 10% annual perpetual dividend and still win on your investment, because you invest it in Bitcoin, and US dollar money supply grows at an equal/higher rate (ignoring Bitcoin's growth in adoption).
Microstrategy isn't by any means undercollateralised and only has a debt/equity of about 25% (which is lower than most top NASDAQ stocks).
Note that the converts are offered at a premium. These transactions are pure profit.
So what people mean when they say 'pOnZi' is that they can't fathom why there's a multiple on NAV and thus believe $MSTR is overpriced and are very scared to invest in it (and frustrated they missed out).
In the worst case scenario, MSTR will draw down to NAV. And if it's beyond worse, then the cynics should def buy the stock. But none of you were there when the mNAV hit <1 last bear.
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the next bear market will be a good test for MSTR and I predict 2026 will be a year of 'correction' similar to 2022
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Maybe. I doubt though it's gonna play out like previous bear. Treasury companies and ETFs are still sucking up >2x the supply. I'm open to the idea that the cycles (as we know them) are over. The fact that this bull run has remained tepid, bolsters my belief. But if exuberance returns only then I'll expect another bear. Yet price action remains mellow currently.
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historically the best returns have been Q4: oct nov dec
this year is only half over and it's premature to say "cycles as we know them are over"
I think
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I didn't say cycles were over. I said I'm open to the idea they might be over.
I.e. I'm assigning a probability that this time it will be different.
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nice meme! 🤣 I'm not sure if MSTR is a Ponzi scheme or not, and like I said before, I'm not really a fan of this hype around companies holding Bitcoin reserves. What I was actually more interested in was the whole discussion about that Bitcoin bank Hal dreamed about.
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98 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 9h
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Pff, not even close
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What do you think it still needs to get there?
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Try to do some actual banking... issue a CBDCs or some other payment layer on top. Hal, drawing on the history of free banks, envisioned that kind of world — where a payment layer on top of a hard money simplified money circulating.
Strategy isn't doing anything like that
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @asyncmind 8h
MSTR the last fiat ponzi ... it will eat all the fiat companies and finally get captured by the state
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7 sats \ 1 reply \ @kruw 9h
Banks are known for lending, and Saylor is merely a borrower.
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Yeah, this ☝️
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i think the answer is yes if hal envisioned fiat banks continuing to exist. mstr is a bitcoin backed fiat withdrawal bank. Deposit/sell mstr your bitcoin and you get access to dollars.
if hal envisioned full reserve bank custody where a bank holds your keys (and gives you credit) and you can withdrawal funds and repay debt with your deposited bitcoin then clearly mstr is not a bank.
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I hope so! Let's wait and see what happens.
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