Michael Saylor’s Recent Comments on Why Buying Bitcoin Is Like Purchasing Property in New York 250 Years Ago
If you feel late to the Crypto party, this puts things into perspective.
Do you know that feeling when you stumble across a promising opportunity or market trend but hesitate to dive in because you worry about being late to the game?
It’s precisely how I felt investing the tiniest amount into Ethereum and Bitcoin in 2017. I thought I’d missed the boat.
Society makes you believe navigating Cryptocurrency is like tip-toeing through a field of landmines. It’s a catch-22 situation — if you’d invested super early, they’d call you mad because it’s unproven and speculative. If you’re a latecomer, there’s less of a gigantic upside.
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Heck, all you hear is how risky Cryptocurrency is. As Jim Rohn would say, “It’s all risky, so risky that none of us are getting out alive”. What’s the harm in taking a chance when dealing with money you can afford to lose?
If there’s this nagging sense you might be late to the game and others have already sucked the juice out and reaped the benefits, you must hear Michael Saylor’s incredible anecdote on Bitcoin.
It’ll re-wire how you see opportunity.
Michael Saylor — Source
“You know, New York was North America’s greatest city by about 1776. And you would have been late to the party, but the question is, would you buy a city block in New York in 1776?
Or if you waited until 1876 and were really late to the party, and New York was the greatest city in North America, was it too late to buy a city block in New York City in 1876?
Or how about 1976, if you were 200 years late to New York City? If you look at the property values of New York in 1976, you’ll find that you would be rich if you had bought real estate in New York in 1976.
So, the answer to the issue is, in every economic system and empire, there’s always one city, one Network, and place people gravitate to.”
Stop Getting Caught Up on the Unit Price of Bitcoin.
Saylor has a candid view of people who get caught up on the unit price of Bitcoin, somehow rationalising that they wish they’d purchased sooner.
We’ve all done it.
Bitcoin arrived on my radar at $300, and I thought it was the most ridiculous idea ever invented — a big mistake.
Michael Saylor says you must ask the question: What’s the dominant Network in cyberspace? Where will smart money start to invest?
People who believe in digital assets will naturally lean towards the most influential and powerful Network.
He uses the analogy of people going to New York because it’s where the smart money and opportunities are. Saylor shares a personal experience from 20 years ago, where he went to New York, attended ten meetings, and successfully raised a billion dollars in just two days.
He made that choice because New York had a lot of financial resources and potential for success. Saylor brought his knowledge and skills to build his business there, and this, in turn, reinforced his connection to that influential Network.
Similarly, he compares this idea to how people will continue to align with a robust digital network like Bitcoin.
Michael Saylor — Source
“Today, the smart money is in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is about a 500 billion dollar Network. How big can it get? Well, 500 trillion, a thousand times today.
There’s about 950 trillion dollars worth of wealth out there. 350 trillion worth of real estate. 300 trillion dollars worth of bonds, 100 trillion worth of equity, half of it is a monetary premium — 11 to 12 trillion worth of Gold.
So, as the world gets smarter, people will sell those things because they don’t make good money.
Gold is awful money. It’s just awful money.
If you store your money in Gold, you lose half of your wealth every 35 years. So why would you do that? It’s not working. In the last two and a half years, Gold is down five per cent; Bitcoin is up 150 per cent.
The only people buying or holding Gold are people that aren’t paying attention. Right now, the smart money is running away from it. And in time, people will dump their Gold, and Bitcoin will jump by a factor of 10 when they do.”
Bitcoin’s Future is Undeniably Promising.
In Ark Invest’s findings, you’ll find the most conclusive research data on Bitcoin’s potential price growth.
According to their research, when people wait to trade Bitcoin for around six months, the chance of it ever being sold drops significantly.
Put simply, the longer people hold onto Bitcoin, the less likely they will let it go.
People who own Bitcoin for over six months make up 71% of all the Bitcoin available to buy and sell.
Even with five significant drops of over 75% in its value since its inception in 2009, Bitcoin has still provided positive average returns over three, four, and five years compared to other traditional asset classes.
Unlike other assets, each low leads to substantial price increases because Bitcoin is still going through this discovery and adoption phase.
Somewhere close to the bottom, when things feel tough, and everyone seems to be losing hope, we go through a typical phase where the Network grows in adoption.
If you look at Bitcoin price performance on a logarithmic chart, you can see that each new low beats the previous market high dating back to 2012.
Is Investing in 0.1 Bitcoin Worthwhile and Meaningful?
Saylor is a proponent of ‘some exposure is better than none’ when it comes to Bitcoin, even if you think the amount you’re investing is negligible.
You’re not alone in feeling that way. Even if you can’t accumulate a whole Bitcoin right now, aiming for 0.1 Bitcoin is still significant.
A fractional piece of a global monetary system is significant regardless of your position size because people will continue to buy Bitcoin at higher prices.
Michael Saylor — Source
“Buying a Bitcoin, whether one Bitcoin, a million satoshis, or even just a hundred thousand satoshis, is like investing in New York City 250 years ago. Yes, you might be late to the game, as people arrived a hundred years before you.
In Bitcoin’s case, someone got there 14 years before you.
I remember once tweeting, quite famously, that I thought Bitcoin was heading towards the same fate as online gambling. I think Bitcoin was $100 a coin then.
Well, I was wrong. But I never needed Bitcoin.
When I needed Bitcoin, it was valued at $9,500 to $10,000 per coin, so I bought it at that price instead of a hundred dollars.
People will continue to buy Bitcoin at higher prices. They will buy it at a hundred thousand, a million, and maybe even 10 million dollars.
Why? Consider the cost of an apartment in Manhattan. People pay 10 million dollars for just four thousand square feet. If we go back in time, all of Manhattan was initially purchased for something like twenty-nine dollars’ worth of beads or something.”
Final Thoughts
I like Saylor’s comparison to a physical network, like New York City’s or Manhattan’s value.
The more participants of calibre who enter that Network, i.e. smart money, add to the Network’s value increasing exponentially.
It’s an analogy that registers with people who don’t understand the digital assets narrative and think in terms of physical assets.
We are becoming more digitalised, so it makes more sense, not less, that we’ll value digital networks.
Throughout history, people have shown that if an asset is desirable, they’ll continue to buy it regardless of how much the price increases.
So even if you’re late to the party, now is better than never.
🙏