Bitcoin will grow due to its financialization, like oil and electricity, said Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.
- Saylor believes growing competition among Bitcoin-focused companies and financial products is healthy.
- Strategy reported a record $19.12 billion third-quarter net income, or $44.75 per diluted share.
- With a U.S. capital markets framework expected in 12 months, Saylor sees tokenization as Bitcoin’s next frontier.
Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman at Strategy (MSTR), said that Bitcoin (BTC) is being financialized in the same way that oil and electricity have been, and that the shift will help the asset grow.
Saylor was responding to a question from an analyst in the Q&A on Strategy’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. A growing number of firms and products built on Bitcoin was a sign of a healthy industry, not a threat, he said.
As more players come in, the price will go up and the industry will get bigger, he said. The number of people who benefit will grow, as will the number of companies and products, he said.
Saylor Invokes Rockefeller, Edison
Saylor cited two of America’s most renowned industrialists to support his argument. He said worrying about rival Bitcoin products was “kind of like saying, well, in the electricity business, I’m really concerned, Mr. Edison, that other companies also want to create electric motors, or use electricity.”
He went on adding, “Or I’m really concerned, Mr. Rockefeller, that other people want to actually build petrochemical products that use oil. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“It’s like oil got financialized, electricity got financialized, and Bitcoin’s getting financialized, and it’s not a bad thing,” he said. “It’s a good thing, right? And it’ll turn out to be a great thing.”
Record Quarter Backs Bet
Saylor’s comments came as Strategy reported a record quarter. The company said in its earnings release that it owned 848,517 Bitcoin as of Oct. 25.
The company reported third-quarter net income of $19.12 billion, operating income of $21 billion or $44.75 diluted per share. Saylor said its stock rose 76% in the quarter compared to a 43% gain in Bitcoin, with Strategy now being the fourth largest equity issuer in the U.S.
The company also said it had put its Stretch preferred stock (STRC) back on the mend. The release said it bought back $2.04 billion of the shares and built up $5.07 billion in U.S. dollar assets.
MSTR’s price closed over 7% on Friday, amid broader weakness due to the Binance (BNB) hack. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around MSTR remained in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone, as chatter around it remained at ‘high’ levels over the past day.
Tokenization The Next Frontier
Saylor also linked financialization to tokenization, the process of placing securities on a blockchain to enable freer trading. Speaking on it, Saylor said Strategy has backed offshore tokenization firms such as Apex and Saturn, “cheering them on and enthusiastically watching what’s happening there.”
In the U.S., he said protocols, platforms, and compliant rules are still evolving. “It is not clear to me that every issue has been settled.” However, he expects for a framework to emerge in the next 12 months. “When it happens, it’ll happen pretty quick,” he added.
Read also: US President Trump Says Binance Claims To Have Hack ‘Pretty Much Under Control,’ But Warns Digital Money Has Always Been ‘A Little Bit Dangerous’
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