The BTC token hit a new all-time high on ‘Bitcoin Pizza’ day, but most of the gains are driven by corporations, not retail buyers.
On May 22, BTC’s fiat value hit US$111,814, a new all-time high and a significant improvement over the ~$76,000 range the token had slipped to in early April. The fact that the new high came on the 15th anniversary of ‘Bitcoin Pizza’ day (more on this below) seemed like icing on the cake (or extra cheese on the pie) for many individuals checking the price ticker on Thursday.
The token’s surge came as the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed (by a single vote) what President Donald Trump called his ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill. The bill has been widely criticized for its failure to offset deep tax cuts with similarly sized cuts in spending. Analysts argue that the bill will exacerbate the federal government’s annual deficit, not to mention its current $36.2 trillion national debt.
Doubts about America’s ability to continue to service its record-high debt appear to have played a significant role in boosting BTC’s value. As the budget bill’s chances of passing grew, the U.S. dollar’s value tumbled against rival currencies, and bond yields spiked higher (meaning nobody was buying T-bills at their current yields, forcing the government to sweeten their appeal).
Interest payments on the federal debt are already nearing $1 trillion per year, making it a larger budget item than the Department of Defense, and could hit $2 trillion within the next decade. These types of concerns are supposedly helping to boost the perception of BTC as a ‘safe haven’ asset as investors look beyond the dollar for somewhere to park their money.
But is BTC really such a haven? During this spring’s tariff-induced stock shock, BTC fell harder than many publicly traded companies, leading many to liken BTC to an over-inflated tech stock. By contrast, more traditional safe havens like gold saw major inflows during this global trade upheaval.
As countless reports have shown, BTC’s surge is largely driven by debt/dilution-fueled spending by the likes of Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (NASDAQ: MSTR) and its growing number of corporate imitators (MetaPlanet, Kulr, the new Twenty-One Capital, etc.). So far this year, 225,000 BTC have been acquired by businesses, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and governments—with Strategy accounting for 77% of this sum.
Meanwhile, retail buyers have sold a net 247,000 tokens so far this year. This builds on figures from 2024, which saw individuals sell 525,000 BTC to the corporate/ETF crowd. So, while the value of so-called ‘digital gold’ may be rising, retail appears to be getting out while the getting is good. Meanwhile, retail interest in physical gold is hitting new heights, and investors believe real gold will outperform BTC this year.
This appears to be a global phenomenon. A recent survey of Singaporeans showed that awareness of cryptocurrencies now tops 94%, but the number of those actually holding tokens fell from 40% in 2024 to just 29% this year. While a slight majority (53%) of Singaporeans who still hold tokens say they plan to acquire more, 67% sold some or all of their holdings last year. Another sustained decline in BTC’s price could cause would-be buyers to rethink their plans.
Bubble boy
BTC long ago disavowed any fidelity to Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash, instead embracing a new identity as ‘digital gold.’ But some critics have suggested ‘digital diamonds’ would be a more apt description, given the “prices propped up by a shady cartel of insiders cornering supply” model that underpins BTC.
It remains to be seen how greatly BTC’s fiat price might correct should those borrowing billions to buy BTC lose their ability to raise additional debt or if shareholders revolt at the prospect of their existing shares being further diluted.
Earlier this year, analysts suggested Strategy’s Saylor was losing his ability to raise fresh capital, a scenario that many credit for Saylor’s decision to launch two new BTC acquisition vehicles called Strike and Strife. These new entities offered investors the promise of double-digit dividends, with additional payments should they fail to pay these dividends on schedule.
Strategy’s data analytics business has become an afterthought, reducing the company to a pure ‘BTC proxy’ trade. Basically, Strategy offers access to BTC for investors who’d rather not open a digital asset exchange account or learn how to self-custody, or for entities like pension funds, which may be prohibited from dabbling directly in ‘crypto.’
Strategy’s shares trade at a significant premium—currently around 1.9x, down from 3.4x last November—to the value of its BTC ‘treasury’ of 576,230 tokens (as of May 19). This disparity convinced renowned short-seller James Chanos to announce a plan to short Strategy stock while buying BTC directly.
Chanos called the treasury plans of Strategy and its imitators “ridiculous” for promoting the idea that their shares are worth more than the underlying asset on which they now rely. Chanos described Saylor’s plan as “buying something for $1, selling it for $2.50.”
Other critics have compared Saylor’s company to a pyramid scheme in that there’s a constant need for newer investors to buy in at higher rates than earlier investors. This creates the illusion that you’re building value when, in reality, you’re just building up obligations that you ultimately won’t be able to honor.
Recall that when Strategy’s Strife offshoot made its debut in March, the Financial Times described it thusly:
“Strife is a fascinating—if baffling—addition to Strategy’s playbook. It seems to defy financial logic, offering fixed-income investors an instrument with an unfavourably asymmetric return profile and piling on more dilution for common stockholders. But given the firm’s all-in bet on crypto, perhaps ‘Perpetual Strife’ is the perfect name. When you’re staking everything on bitcoin, a little chaos is inevitable.”
On May 22, Strategy announced plans to raise another $2.1 billion through the sale of Strife shares, offering 10% dividends. However, the fine print in Strife’s prospectus states that the company can choose not to pay dividends “for any reason.” For example, if BTC’s current price bubble were to burst, which could happen if the rest of the market catches on that Saylor is the market.
Bitcoin Pizza pioneer
BTC’s price surge brought new pain for Laszlo Hanyecz, the Florida resident who used 10,000 Bitcoin to purchase two Papa John’s pizzas on May 22, 2010. The pizza delivery—conducted via an intermediary who took up Hanyecz’s offer on the Bitcoin Talk forum—is considered the first instance of Bitcoin being exchanged for real-world goods following the token’s launch in January 2009.
As the years went by, Bitcoin became BTC, and BTC’s fiat value rose, Hanyecz’s pizza purchase grew ever more infamous, with people eagerly listing the various high-ticket items that Hanyecz would have been able to afford had he held on to those tokens. That list of goods is now more or less infinite, as the value of those 10,000 Bitcoin currently stands at over $1.1 billion.
In 2019, Hanyecz revealed/confessed that his alleged folly was actually much, much worse, as he went on to exchange a total of ~80,000 Bitcoin for pizzas in 2010. At the time, few individuals were mining Bitcoin for the block rewards—which then stood at 50 tokens every 10 minutes or so—making it relatively easy to build a massive stack.
Hanyecz later claimed that one of the people with whom he’d traded Bitcoin for pizza bought a house with those Bitcoin. And yet, Hanyecz claims not to have any regrets, noting that his Bitcoin stash was basically ‘free money’ and so he viewed his purchases as ‘free pizza.’ And he really likes pizza.
Regardless, one can easily imagine nights in which Hanyecz is trying to drift off to sleep only to be kept awake by the prospects of how different his life might have looked had he not been so hungry 15 years ago.
Mock him if you must, but Hanyecz deserves praise for blazing the trail for all those who believed Satoshi’s vision was correct—Bitcoin was designed to be used, not locked in a vault with the expectation that its fiat value would skyrocket simply by leaving it alone. If he’s ever in our neck of the woods, pizza’s on us.
You know, CoinGeek’s Kurt Wuckert Jr. is a Florida resident, and we’re sure he’d love to buy Hanyecz a pizza and discuss Bitcoin history. Although, since Wuckert’s originally a Chicago guy, you might have to go deep-dish.
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