Saylor discussed Apple’s ability to become the “world’s largest, most profitable bank in human history” via Bitcoin.
Michael Saylor’s optimistic sentiment about Bitcoin is nothing new. Indeed, he has frequently discussed the digital asset’s potential to revolutionize payments and become “the future of the property.” Saylor, though, took it a step farther in a recent interview with Dan Weiskopf. Saylor discussed Apple’s ability to become the “world’s largest, most profitable bank in human history” via Bitcoin.
Recognizing Bitcoin‘s enormous potential, industry titans in the technology and financial sectors have invested. However, just a few are capitalizing on it and attempting to advance it. Saylor’s MicroStrategy is one of these, and it currently owns 105,084 Bitcoins. Then there are the tech behemoths such as Tesla and Square Inc., which control 43,200 and 8,2027 bitcoins, respectively.
However, Apple Park dubbed the “apple of Silicon Valley,” has made no official announcements regarding investing in digital gold. In 2019, Apple Pay Vice President Jennifer Bailey stated that Apple was “monitoring cryptocurrencies” since it was “interesting” and “possible in the long run.” However, it appears as though Saylor has his own vision for how Apple could accept Bitcoin. According to Saylor, in the future, organizations with vast resources may be able to solve a slew of problems simply by purchasing Bitcoin.
“[…] if Apple, Google, and Facebook build Bitcoin into their application, they improve their business. If El Salvador or Cuba or Turkey or Japan or Russia or the US or the UK or France buy Bitcoin, they fix their balance sheet.”
He continued, “Every corporation on Earth improves its balance sheet by purchasing Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin is the answer for hundreds of thousands of entities. And if you don’t own it, you aren’t exposed to any of those entities, isn’t that correct?”
When we examine the crypto-adoption rate from this angle, this is an intriguing possibility to consider. According to a recent survey conducted by Crypto.com, the global cryptocurrency user base nearly doubled from 100 million in January 2021 to 221 million in June 2021. Bitcoin reached a peak of $64,000 over this time frame, followed by a sharp decline. Meanwhile, altcoins have eroded BTC and ETH’s market share.
Given that adoption has accelerated exponentially, how much is Bitcoin worth to Apple? According to Saylor, the worth is $3 trillion. According to him, iCloud might eventually serve as a payment facilitator for the transfer of this digital asset. He clarified,
“You know what’s in the iCloud right now, correct? Your films, images, documents, and communications. What is missing from the iCloud at the moment? It is your money. What happens when a hundred trillion dollars is slurped from twentieth-century real estate? What happens when 100 trillion USD is slurped up by digital property–which includes land, real estate, gold, bonds, and securities? It has to be stored in iCloud or the Android equivalent, or on Facebook.”
Declaring it “the next great chapter,” Saylor asserted that industry titans such as Apple, Facebook, and Square may benefit from this technique. It may just “sell $10,000 worth of Bitcoin to a hundred million people.” Additionally, “If 100 million people have $10,000 sitting in the iCloud, then you just became the world’s biggest, most profitable bank in the history of mankind, right?”
Nonetheless, Apple has refrained from entering the cryptocurrency or Bitcoin space. This could be a result of regulators’ efforts in response to Facebook’s introduction of Diem or the ongoing legal battle between crypto-businesses and the SEC. It will be fascinating to observe how fierce the battle becomes if and when Apple decides to enter the crypto-sphere.
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