Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, has revised his stance regarding the suggestion that major banks should handle Bitcoin custody, following significant backlash from the cryptocurrency community.
“I advocate for self-custody for those who are willing and capable, the right to self-custody for everyone, and the freedom to select the type of custody and custodian for individuals and institutions worldwide,” Saylor asserted in a post on X on October 23.
The crypto community has been vocal against Saylor, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, after he labeled “paranoid crypto-anarchists” during a recent interview.
Simultaneously, he implied that Bitcoin holders might benefit from entrusting their assets to banks deemed “too big to fail,” which are “designed to be custodians of financial assets.”
“Bitcoin thrives on all investment forms from diverse entities and should be open to all,” Saylor expanded in what seemed to be a conciliatory post on X.
Source: Michael Saylor
In response, Gabor Gurbacs, an adviser at VanEck, remarked that this should not be seen as a controversial position, but rather “just common sense.”
On the other hand, Joel Valenzuela, a marketer for Dash, labeled it as “capitulation,” claiming Saylor revealed his “true colors.”
The October 21 interview ignited discussions around self-custody and fed the frustration of Bitcoin advocates like Samson Mow, who ridiculed the “crypto-anarchist” notion.
Max Keiser commented on October 23, stating, “The recent remarks denouncing self-custody reveal a regressive inclination to favor the legacy, centralized banking crooks that Bitcoin aims to resolve.”
Backlash from industry influencers. Source: Weiss Crypto
Related: Saylor’s comments on big bank BTC custody are ‘batshit insane’ — Buterin
On October 23, Pascal Gauthier, the CEO of hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger, stated to Cointelegraph, “There is no crypto without self-custody, so discussing whether all coins end up in an ETF or exchange is somewhat irrelevant,” while promoting his products at a blockchain event in Dubai.
However, self-custody involves risks, as demonstrated by the 2020 hack of Ledger, which resulted in a major data breach exposing personal information of hundreds of thousands of customers, leading to an ongoing series of phishing attacks.
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