MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor has changed his tone on spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), arguing that the recent nod from the United States regulator is only good news for Bitcoin as well.
“Is this good for Bitcoin or not? Yeah, I think it’s good for Bitcoin, in fact, I think it may be better for Bitcoin because I think that we are politically much more powerful supported by the entire crypto industry,” Saylor told Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack on the May 25 episode of What Bitcoin Did podcast.
“They serve as another line of defense for Bitcoin,” he said, following the news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved eight spot Ether ETFs to be listed on their respective exchanges on May 23.
Saylor reiterated that this will “accelerate institutional adoption,” as previously wary investors will now recognize crypto as a legitimate asset class. Furthermore, Saylor explained they will allocate capital across the various crypto assets, but Bitcoin will still receive the majority of allocated capital as “the leader” of cryptocurrencies.
“I think mainstream investors will say oh there is a crypto asset class now, maybe we’ll allocate 5% or 10% to the crypto asset class, but Bitcoin will be 60% or 70% of that,” he claimed.
Saylor acknowledged his opinion has changed on spot Ether ETFs, given he previously was under the impression that there was a slim chance of SEC approval.
“Two weeks before, the world looked like Bitcoin was going to be the only asset securitized and offered as a spot ETF by the Wall Street establishment and it was going to spread as the one legitimate crypto asset,” he explained.
On May 3, Cointelegraph reported that Saylor predicted that the SEC would classify ETH as a security, followed by BNB, Solana, XRP, and Cardano being viewed in the same way.
“None of [these tokens] will ever be wrapped by a spot ETF, none of them will be accepted by Wall Street, none of them will be accepted by mainstream institutional investors as crypto assets,” said Saylor.
Saylor’s change in tone on What Bitcoin Did did not go unnoticed by the wider crypto community.
“Changing his tune a bit,” Bitcoin commercial litigator Joe Carlasare posted in a May 25 X post.
“Is the next step Saylor buying ETH? That’s a serious 180,” added crypto analyst Ricky Bobbyy.
