OG Blockchain Investors Still Fail to Understand Bitcoin: Gabor Gurbacs

Tether’s strategic advisor, Gabor Gurbacs, has taken to his account on the X social media platform to share with the crypto community his take on institutional investors who entered the nascent blockchain and crypto space eight to nine years ago.

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Institutions still fail to understand Bitcoin

Gurbacs talked about the “institutional crowd,” which began to tap into the blockchain sphere back in 2016/2017. He stressed that those investors preferred to put their money into blockchain rather than Bitcoin.

Without making any concrete examples, Gurbacs stated that now, in 2025, eight years later, they still prefer blockchain tech in general to Bitcoin in particular, missing the revolutionary point about BTC: “8 years later they still don’t understand either.”

“We are still early,” he concluded.

Banks vs. Tether

Tether’s strategic advisor also slammed banks, saying that the only thing they are based on is customers trusting central depositories. Gurbacs claimed that bank deposits are usually backed with less than 15% tier-1 (liquid) capital: “Custodians hold single-digit million insurance bonds against multi-billion dollar funds.”

Overall, he admitted, this makes central depositories “a house of cards” under the hood.

Compared to banks, Tether has $118.4 billion in reserves, including $5.3 billion in excess reserves as of August 2024.

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Another BTC treasury company grabs Bitcoin

Meanwhile, a lot of institutional investors have already dipped their toes in Bitcoin through Bitcoin spot ETFs and Bitcoin Treasury companies. The very first of them was Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), cofounded by Michael Saylor. In recent years, several others have followed in his footsteps, including Metaplanet, MARA and Riot.

One of these companies, based in Canada, announced today an acquisition of 292.8 BTC after raising 125 million Canadian dollars — a Canadian public firm, Bitcoin Treasury Corporation (BTCT).

This acquisition was part of this company’s Bitcoin treasury strategy. Also, this week, ProCap BTC, recently founded by Anthony Pompliano, also stated that it had bought 1,208 Bitcoin at roughly $105,977 per BTC. Now, the company already holds 4,932 Bitcoins.