- Crypto bull Michael Saylor said bitcoin is likely the only known scarcity in the world.
- Everything else, including gold and real estate, can be created given enough money and time.
- Saylor, whose firm has bought thousands of bitcoins, said the digital token is "magical."
The only scarcity in the world is bitcoin, and everything else — including gold — can be created indefinitely, according to crypto evangelist Michael Saylor.
In an interview on the PBD Podcast, the chief executive officer of enterprise software company MicroStrategy said the reason bitcoin is "magical" is because only 21 million tokens can ever be created, and it's likely the only scarcity known to humanity.
"I can create more real estate in New York City. I can create more cars. I can create more luxury watches. I can create more gold. I can create more shares of a stock. I can create more bonds," he said. "I can create any commodity; they're commodities by definition. Given enough money and time, I can create infinite of any of them."
Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of bitcoin, designed it to have a hard cap of 21 million tokens that can ever be mined. Because of the limited supply, many consider bitcoin to be "digital gold," a term that has been called into question as the two assets have moved separately amid the Ukraine war. The term also goes against Saylor's assertion that bitcoin is the only scarcity known in existence.
Saylor — who is perhaps best known for losing $6 billion in a single day in the height of the dot-com bubble — has long been touting bitcoin, saying it's a hedge to high inflation and "freedom money," among other perks. He has said previously that his firm's strategy is to buy and hold bitcoin, without ever selling it.
MicroStrategy, based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, is one of several companies adding the cryptocurrency, which is the largest digital currency by market capitalization, to its balance sheet.
As of February, the company had 125,051 bitcoins, which it acquired for around $30,200 per coin on average. At bitcoin's current trading price around $42,000, that means Saylor's stash is worth more than $5 billion.