Bitcoin could struggle to reach $250,000, let alone $1 million, because billionaire Michael Saylor has fundamentally changed the cryptocurrency market through Strategy’s accumulation and financial engineering, according to early Uber investor Jason Calacanis.
"Will it ever hit $1 million? Heck, will it even hit $250,000?” Calacanis wrote on X on Wednesday. "I think Saylor broke the game of bitcoin by trying to corner the market and doing all kinds of funky financial engineering around it."
Scaramucci, to whom Calacanis was responding, remains bullish on Bitcoin despite describing its current market environment as a bear market.
Speaking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Scaramucci said Bitcoin has been unusually resilient during its latest downturn. "I think as the halving cycle comes in again and we cut the supply of coins again, it will tighten prices," he said. "And I think you'll see the thing move back up over 100,000. But it's going to grind for a while."
"The most convoluted way to buy Bitcoin"
Calacanis has been a long-time critic of Strategy, the company that has amassed one of the largest Bitcoin holdings in the world.
Earlier this month, Calacanis described Strategy as "the most convoluted way to buy Bitcoin ever invented." He argued that investors who want Bitcoin exposure should simply buy Bitcoin itself.
"My analysis has been consistent: MicroStrategy is the most convoluted way to buy Bitcoin ever invented, and investors should just buy Bitcoin if they want Bitcoin," Calacanis wrote on Aug. 7.
He also questioned whether Bitcoin can continue attracting enough new investors.
"Bitcoin requires a growing community of believers... at least for the price to go up," Calacanis wrote in another post on Aug. 7. "For the last couple of years, people looking for appreciation and speculation seem to have found more interesting bets. Do you think Bitcoin will get to $1M a coin? If so, when?"
According to Calacanis, Saylor's attempt to accumulate an enormous portion of Bitcoin with the help of increasingly sophisticated financing mechanisms could undermine the very asset he is betting on.
Not everyone agrees. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley directly rejected Calacanis's assessment on Wednesday. "I think you're wrong," Horsley wrote in response.
