In a keynote speech at MicroStrategy World: Bitcoin for Business, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, delivered a masterclass on corporate finance and the power of Bitcoin to strengthen corporate balance sheets. Saylor made a point to emphasize Bitcoin as the currency bachelor A solution to raise capital in an inflationary environment.
In his speech, Saylor likened the cost of capital to the benchmark a company must exceed He increases Its purchasing power, arguing that “Bitcoin is Just Assets that exceed the cost of capital. Another way to say it, He is Everything else is diluted“.
More description TRUE Cost of Capital, he noted, “The Standard & Poor's index is the modern proxy for the cost of capital… If you had to pick one measure and say, what measure gives you a sense of how quickly the supply of global dollar currencies is expanding? Maybe the S&P 500… This is another way to see inflation.
Saylor went on to stress his belief that all assets, with the exception of Bitcoin, do not accumulate on corporate balance sheets despite their general acceptance. In particular, he highlighted the relatively poor performance of silver, gold and US government bonds:
“(If companies invest) in Treasury bills, they get 3% after tax versus their cost of capital of 12% per year. So if you have $100 billion of capital, you're destroying $9 billion of shareholder value per year… The story here is that bonds don't hold value, right? It's a terrible capital asset and gold doesn't keep up with the cost of capital.
There is no second best crypto asset
MicroStrategy's CEO pointed out the key differences between Bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, expressing the importance and necessity of proof-of-work consensus in creating a digital good.
“You could see the writing on the wall when the Bitcoin Spot ETF was approved in January. By the end of May, you'll know that Ethereum won't be approved. And when Ethereum won't be approved, sometime this summer, it will be very clear “For everyone, Ethereum is considered a security for crypto assets, not a commodity. Then, you will see that (for) Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Ripple, Cardano – everything in the stack.”
On the issue of Bitcoin's energy use, Saylor cited the idea of a “physical connection to the real world” in the Bitcoin consensus. He described the network as having “raw digital power that stands in the way of anyone who tries to undermine the integrity of the grid… The grid is powered by electricity, and this creates a decentralized dynamic that pushes the entire grid to the end of the grid.” The network is in search of stuck energy.
It rises, forever
Saylor's conviction and use of physics-based metaphors were as present as ever when he talked about Bitcoin's rising price and continued monetization. “It never goes down. The graph never goes down. It only goes in one direction. Bitcoin is the ratchet of capital. It's a one-way ratchet. Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, said Archimedes, and I can move the world.” Bitcoin is the place to stand.“
“There is no idea more powerful than the digital transformation of capital… No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. This is an idea. Its time has come. It is unstoppable. And so I will end by noting that Bitcoin is the best. Best what ? The best.”