Overview
- In a March 13 Daily Mail column, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson called cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, “basically a Ponzi scheme.”
- Johnson recounted a local retiree who lost about £20,000 after paying repeated fees to a supposed crypto opportunity, and he questioned Bitcoin’s intrinsic value and lack of an identifiable issuer.
- He contrasted Bitcoin with assets such as gold and even Pokémon cards, saying those hold clearer value while Bitcoin relies on collective belief.
- Responding on X, Michael Saylor said Bitcoin is not a Ponzi because such schemes require a central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones.
- Saylor added that Bitcoin has no issuer, promoter, or guaranteed return and functions as an open, decentralized network; broader online reaction referenced a roughly $1.42 trillion market cap, about $62 billion in daily volume, former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s note on fixed supply, and trading near $71,000 during the exchange.