Michael Saylor hit back after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized Bitcoin (BTC) and suggested it was similar to a Ponzi scheme.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticizes Bitcoin
Johnson described a conversation with a church acquaintance who lost money after being lured into a potential crypto investment opportunity. According to Johnson, the man initially gave £500 to someone who promised to double his money via Bitcoin.
“After three and a half years of suffering … he was down £20,000,” Johnson wrote in his report. He also described how the man made repeated payments to recover the money. The former prime minister used the story to question the value and structure of cryptocurrencies.
He compared BTC to traditional assets and collections. “I can see the intrinsic value of gold,” Johnson wrote. “I can even understand why Pokemon cards have held their value.”
He then questioned the fundamentals of the digital asset, stating that Bitcoin has no identifiable authority or issuer. “But Bitcoin? What is it? It’s just a bunch of numbers stored on a bunch of computers,” he wrote.
Johnson also hinted at the mysterious origins of BTC’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, adding that the system depends on collective belief. “Everything depends entirely on the collective belief of Bitcoin holders,” Johnson said.
He warned that an increase in fraud related to crypto investments could undermine confidence in the sector. “I always assumed from the beginning that all cryptocurrencies were basically a Ponzi scheme,” Johnson wrote. He argued that the ecosystem relies on a constant flow of new investors.
Michael Saylor applauds Johnson
Saylor denied this description in a post on social media platform X. “Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme,” Saylor wrote. “Ponzi requires the central operator to promise returns and pay early investors with later funds.”
He argued that the structure of Bitcoin makes it completely different from such schemes. “Bitcoin has no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed returns — just an open, decentralized money network driven by code and market demand,” Saylor said.
Management has long been one of the most prominent corporate supporters of Bitcoin. His company MicroStrategy has billions of cryptos on its balance sheet. Johnson’s comments also reframed the broader debate about monetary systems.
In his speech, he referenced historical models of government-backed currency, pointing to Roman coins featuring emperors as an example of trust in government-backed money. But crypto proponents often argue that Bitcoin’s decentralized structure is what protects it from political influence and the inflation associated with government spending.
