The luck of Irish was with bitcoin Thursday, aka St. Patrick’s Day, and two billionaire crypto supporters celebrate earning of the green.
Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, and Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, both took to Twitter to sing the praises of bitcoin.
‘We Are Lucky to Have Bitcoin’
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were climbing after the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it would start raising interest rates for the first time since 2018.
Bitcoin lost some of its early morning steam, but it was still up nearly 1% to $40,626 at last check, according to CoinGecko.
Saylor was succinct in his support, tweeting “we are lucky to have bitcoin,” along with an image of a shamrock.
“There’s never been a more critical and necessary time in human history to have bitcoin,” one person responded.
“Are you getting paid to shill bitcoin?” another person commented.
Bear in mind, Saylor is the same guy who tweeted back in September 2020 that bitcoin is “is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy.”
‘As Trust Continues to Break Down’
Saylor also retweeted a clip of Novogratz on Thursday speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box program, were he said “people are opting into the bitcoin community.”
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“There are literally more people that one bitcoin than live in Russia,” he said. “They freely opted in and said ‘we believe in this ethos of this community,’ which is a hard money way to store our wealth. And I think that will gain momentum as trust continues to break down.”
Novogratz said that he doesn’t think bitcoin will be a currency, but rather a store of value.
A former Goldman Sachs banker, Novogratz said that if Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen “can get our economy back to 2% inflation and have our debt come back, and growth is so high we go from 140 debt to GDP to a 70, Americans won’t have to buy bitcoin.”
“If you were in Russia, you would feel pretty stupid having all of your money in rubles,” he said, a nod to the ruble’s recent tumble following the invasion of Ukraine. “Or if you’re in Turkey you feel pretty stupid having all your money in the Turkish lira.”
‘Bitcoin Provides a Great Alternative’
Novogratz added that “when there’s bad stewardship of economies–our stewardship has not been great–make no bones about it–bitcoin provides a great alternative.”
And what bitcoin story would be complete without a comment from economist Peter Schiff, a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies?
Earlier this week, AMC Entertainment (AMC) – Get AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. Class A Report unveiled a $28 million investment in a Nevada gold mine.
Schiff noted the theater chain operator’s crypto-friendly activities. The company recently began accepting payments in meme coins dogecoin and shiba inu. In November, AMC began accepting bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies for online payments.
“After trying to sucker #crypto investors into buy their over-priced stock by announcing they would accept #Bitcoin payments for popcorn,” Schiff tweeted. “#AMC executives decided to use the money raised by selling stock to buy a #gold mine rather than Bitcoin!”
