This second-day conference session had the superstars Cathie Wood and Michael Saylor. Cathie is known for investing in disruptive technologies and for being the Chief Executive at Ark Invest. Michael is an MIT graduate that is the longest-running CEO of a Fortune 500 company – Microstrategy Group.
Michael Saylor who has purchased 6 Billion dollars of Bitcoin stated that he is “more bullish than ever on Bitcoin.” Michael wanted to discuss the political macroeconomic regulatory environment, the large capital markets, and technology. Cathie says she is seeing the politics surrounding Bitcoin change radically to being a single point issue for politicians wanting to promote Bitcoin. Cathie also has seen a shift with Janet Yellen (Big Bird) from saying that Bitcoin was involved in money laundering to changing her tune to being more even-handed.
We have the Presidential Order giving directives to government agencies to get educated on Bitcoin and how to figure out how to incorporate it into the government. This is a new asset class and this is a promising development. There is jockeying now to see who can be the most Bitcoin-positive politician. Cathie said that the momentum is clearly behind Bitcoin now.
Michael stated that “Bitcoin is the ethical safe haven for any public figure. The technical safe haven for any technology company. The financial safe haven for any investor.” “Bitcoin is the risk-off crypto asset,” Cathie stated that because the SEC has stated that Bitcoin is a digital asset and not a security a lot of the risk with Bitcoin has been reduced. The regulatory future is bright.
Everything that we have seen in the last 12 months such as inflation, war, Russian sanctions, the Canadian trucker crisis have been bullish for Bitcoin. It has underscored the use case for Bitcoin. Cathie stated that 70% of Bitcoin is in long term holding hands and that “this will be a very nice ride.”
Michael stated that every exchange needs to integrate the Lightning network into their platforms. He congratulated Square, Kraken, and BitPay for integrating with Lightning. Cathie noted that the ability of Lightning to reduce friction in the transactions is very important for adoption. We will see an explosion of developers focused on the lightning network. Michael stated that “not supporting Lightning is like not supporting the internet.”
Cathie said when she talks about Bitcoin she says that “Bitcoin is the first, global, private, digital, rules-based, monetary system in the history of the world. It is a very big idea.”
The capital market is coming alive regarding their interest in Bitcoin but it is still a long way from being fully embraced by institutional investors due to being volatile and a new asset class. Cathie says her price target for Bitcoin is over $1 million per Bitcoin by 2030. This is based on 2.5% of institutional assets being allocated to Bitcoin.
Michael says Bitcoin will change the world. He also said, “Do not sell your Bitcoin.”
Below is the link to the video and again there is commentary following the session with the guy in the black shirt being out of his league.