MicroStrategy's Saylor Is Wrong to Focus on Bitcoin's Store of Value, Not Its Medium of Exchange Role

Michael Saylor, you were forced to realize that all the store-of-value assets are defective and pushed you to focus on the only asset that is not.

In a surprising turn of events, a Bitcoin supporter has penned a heartfelt message to Michael Saylor, urging him to shift his focus from Bitcoin as a store of value to its role as a medium of exchange. The supporter, who identifies as Ivan Makedonski, expressed his deep respect for Saylor's contributions to the Bitcoin community but argued that his SoV obsession is badly missing the mark.

According to Makedonski, the biggest aspect of Bitcoin is the medium of exchange. Even though the fiat system increasingly separates money's functions, that doesn't mean it should. He further noted that while everyone is talking about how the housing market is huge when you look at it from one point of view and horrible when you look at it from another, if you experience pain driving you to keep your billions of dollars purchasing power, then housing is a decent tool to keep it.

"There's no store of value without a medium of exchange. The medium of exchange comes first; you receive a transaction, then you store the Bitcoin. If the store of value were the main point, imagine announcing that you lost the keys for your Bitcoin and it's still stored perfectly but without the medium of exchange function. The market will wipe out the fictional fiat value layered on top of it. That value is there precisely because it can move and still be used as a medium of exchange," wrote Makedonski.

He added: "An oxygen tank is crucial for reserves, but breathing is more important. The store of value is secondary and depends on the ability to transact. Without it, the store of value becomes meaningless. You, Michael, learned this firsthand when your million-dollar holdings in Argentina were diluted by 90%. You faced difficulties preserving the value not because you did not see it coming but because you couldn't easily use it as a medium of exchange."

Wanting to express his thoughts further, Makedonski began making a list of his own. According to him, by now, most people exposed to Bitcoin know the chart from Jesse Mayers that you popularized, claiming there's no better idea than a $900 trillion clean store of value, then immediately call Bitcoin one of the world's most liquid markets, running 24/7/365.

"Liquidity means a medium of exchange. Now, let's break down the Jesse chart, starting with the housing market. It's valued at $330 trillion, but it's such a poor medium of exchange that it only trades for $1.3 trillion annually. Regulations and taxes make trading real estate even tougher. Still, since it's 100 times better as a store of value, billionaires prize it, increasingly dominating the market and pricing out younger generations," the Bitcoin supporter stated.

He continued: "A house might be valuable, but its worth grows not just from what it is but from its ties to nearby utilities. Build a road to it, and the value rises. Add a superstore or a gas station, or connect it to the electrical grid, and the value climbs again. The network creates opportunities for energy to flow into the area, boosting the chance to capture that energy as economic value, like money. So the exchanges that happen in the network are what increases the value of a house. But I see the flip side: if you're a billionaire and everyone's after your resources, you don't want a big network around your house. You'd prioritize privacy instead. The house might lose value, but the goal shifts to raising the cost for others to reach you, reducing the chance of being attacked."

Makedonski went on to note that the bond market is valued at $300 trillion as a store of value, with $140 trillion traded yearly plus $25 trillion in new bond issuance. That means the medium of exchange value is about 50% of its total value annually. It's better than houses in that sense, but the numbers still show people primarily use it as a store of value.

Next up are equities, valued at $115 trillion and traded for about $175 trillion. This shows their strength as a medium of exchange exceeds their store of value role. Take your MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MCRY) stock—you know it better than anyone. How much value did it store last year, and how much was exchanged through it? The next two sections are interesting. The art industry's yearly transactions are so minor that they don't even register on the chart. Meanwhile, the cars and collectibles sector sees trading volumes of nearly $4 trillion annually. This highlights that they're mostly seen as a store of value each year, but it also reveals how poorly the housing market performs as a medium of exchange—outdone even by the car market.

"Oooooh, gold! Gold bugs rave that it's been around for over 5,000 years, calling it the