Spot Bitcoin ETF biggest Wall St development in 30 years — Michael Saylor

A spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval could be the biggest development on Wall Street since the early 1990s, says Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor.

“It’s not unreasonable to suggest that this may be the biggest development on Wall Street in 30 years,” Saylor said in a Dec. 19 interview with Bloomberg.

“The last thing that was this consequential was the creation of the S&P index and the ability to invest in all 500 S&P companies via one trade at the same time.”

Saylor explained that a spot Bitcoin ETF would open the door to mainstream retail and institutional investors that previously hadn’t been able to access a “high bandwidth compliant channel” to invest in Bitcoin.

This ETF would be a major catalyst driving demand, followed by a “supply shock” in April when the Bitcoin halving event takes place, Saylor explained.

“So I think we’re expecting 2024 is going to be a major bull run for the asset class,” Saylor said.

Saylor confirmed that MicroStrategy — his business intelligence firm and Bitcoin holding company — will continue its Bitcoin investment strategy for the foreseeable future.

“Our goal is always to find a way to pursue more Bitcoin per share for our shareholders,” whether that be through debt, equity or cash flows from the business, he explained.

MicroStrategy has provided traditional investors with exposure to Bitcoin’s price since it first started buying Bitcoin in 2020. “We provide [investors with] leverage and we don’t charge a fee. [So] we offer sort of a high performance vehicle for people that are Bitcoin long investors,” Saylor noted.

Saylor’s MicroStrategy now owns 174,530 BTC with an average purchasing price of $30,252, according to data from Buy Bitcoin Worldwide. At current prices, this is worth $7.3 billion, and as of the time of publication, MicroStrategy is up $2.1 billion on its Bitcoin investment.

While Saylor is now widely known as one of the most outspoken Bitcoin advocates, exactly 10 years ago, he published a now-infamous tweet predicting the downfall of the asset.

“#Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.”

#Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) December 19, 2013

It didn’t age well, and it may be worth noting that online gambling hasn’t died either, which currently touts a total market size of $63 billion, per Business Wire data.

Around 2020, Saylor revised his initial position. He also previously said he studied Bitcoin for thousands of hours before convincing MicroStrategy’s board to add Bitcoin to the firm’s balance sheet.

Related: Spot Bitcoin ETF will be ‘bloodbath’ for crypto exchanges, analyst says

Bitcoin’s price was $677 on Dec. 19, 2013, according to CoinGecko — meaning BTC’s price increased nearly 18-fold before MicroStrategy bought its first batch of BTC on Aug. 11, 2020, for approximately $11,650.

Others, such as Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair praised Saylor for having a second look at Bitcoin.

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” LeClair said.

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