Michael Saylor: there is no alternative to Bitcoin

According to the now famous CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, there is no alternative to Bitcoin. 

There is no alternative to #Bitcoin.

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) September 15, 2022

Saylor often posts similar seemingly cryptic tweets, but in this case it is not difficult to understand what he means. 

Being a known maximalist, he is saying that none of the other cryptocurrencies can really be an alternative to Bitcoin, not even Ethereum. In fact, the tweet was not posted at random on the very day of the Merge. 

The curious thing is that other cryptocurrencies are commonly called altcoins, i.e. alternative coins, but there is some confusion about this concept. 

The first alternative cryptocurrencies that emerged, including for example Litecoin, were intended to replace Bitcoin in some specific use. Litecoin, for example, set out to be an alternative as a means of payment, but this proposition has since been lost over time. 

The fact is that initially there was only Bitcoin, so it was assumed that it should be able to be used for any use of the currency. 

Over time the number of altcoins exploded, and many of them specialized in doing better things that Bitcoin did not do well. 

Michael Saylor’s view of Bitcoin

By now, Bitcoin is seen primarily as a financial asset for investment, particularly as a form of protection from overly expansive monetary policies of Central Banks. For all other uses there are altcoins that are often much more specialized for a specific use, so the current scenario is very different from the one during which the concept of alternative cryptocurrency was born. 

As it stands today, there is in fact no real alternative for Bitcoin’s specific use in the financial markets, because ETH is seen as something different, and no other cryptocurrency today enjoys similar consideration to Bitcoin. 

Therefore Saylor’s statement is not hard to grasp if one refers it to the current context, and in particular to the alleged rivalry with Ethereum. 

If, on the other hand, we still carry around the original definition of altcoin, i.e., “cryptocurrency competing with respect to Bitcoin as a whole,” doubts might arise in this regard, since to cite a specific case, there are practically no NFTs circulating on Bitcoin anymore. 

However, it is possible that Saylor meant something else as well. 

That is, it is possible that he was trying to make the point that Bitcoin itself cannot realistically be replaced, as of today. In other words, not even Ethereum, with its variable and modified monetary policy already several times, could do so. 

Already many other times, Saylor has emphasized the concept that Bitcoin exists and will remain, and that it will not be undermined by any other cryptocurrency. So not only are there currently no cryptocurrencies in circulation that are truly alternatives to Bitcoin in the role it has carved out for itself in the financial markets in recent years, but it is also extremely unlikely that there will be any in the future. This is a very difficult experiment to replicate, and one that, to be fair, may not even make sense to try to replicate at all by now. 

However, perhaps Saylor also meant something else. 

The continuing battle between Bitcoin and Ethereum

Indeed, there has been talk for a long time now of a possible overtaking of ETH’s market capitalization vis-à-vis that of BTC, but this has never happened and has never even really come close to happening. 

For example, after the Merge, or Ethereum’s largest single advance ever since its inception, the ratio of the two capitalizations increased in favor of Bitcoin, from 1.85 to 2.11. It had gained in anticipation of the Ethereum Merge, moving from one-third to one-half of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, but now that the Merge has arrived the trend may have reversed. 

The yearly high in this regard, or 3.15, was touched precisely at the crypto markets’ most difficult time, in mid-June, and this reveals that when there is trouble BTC always remains the real safe haven asset in the crypto markets, besides stablecoins. 

Ethereum recovers against Bitcoin particularly in times of enthusiasm, perhaps precisely because of an excess of enthusiasm that sooner or later inevitably ends. 

Therefore, it is possible that Saylor wanted to warn that, now that the Merge has occurred, Ethereum’s move toward Bitcoin may be interrupted, if not reversed. 

While not forgetting that Saylor is not an impartial person on these matters, as he is a Bitcoin maximalist, his reasoning regarding Bitcoin should not be underestimated, because he began to understand the ground Bitcoin was taking on in the financial markets more than two years ago, when its price was still below $12,000. 

Moreover, there are many who believe that Bitcoin actually has no real alternative of any kind nowadays. Altcoins fulfill other roles, some even better than Bitcoin could, but they should be considered as something else compared to BTC and not direct competitors.