Ex-British PM Boris Johnson labels Bitcoin as fraudulent 'Ponzi scheme'
The former prime minister stated he comprehends the investment value of gold and collectible Pokémon cards, but dismissed Bitcoin as nothing more than a scam.
The United Kingdom's former prime minister, Boris Johnson, has described Bitcoin (BTC) as a fraudulent "Ponzi Scheme," claiming it holds less intrinsic value than collectible Pokémon cards, which he argued possess widespread appeal and span multiple decades of cultural significance.
In an opinion piece that appeared in the Daily Mail on Friday, Johnson opened with an anecdote about an acquaintance who had handed over 500 British pounds, equivalent to approximately $661, to an individual who made promises to "double his money" through BTC investments.
Over the following three and a half years, the acquaintance kept paying more "fees" to the individual running the scheme, but never managed to recover his initial investment, ultimately losing 20,000 British pounds, approximately $26,474, which resulted in severe financial difficulties, according to Johnson's account.
"He was struggling to pay his bills. He wasn't the only one, said my friend. Other people in the neighborhood were going through the same nightmare," Johnson added. Following this narrative, Johnson proceeded to make the case that collectible Pokémon cards represent a superior tradable asset compared to BTC:
"These curious little Japanese cartoon beasties seem to exercise the same fascination over the five-year-old mind as they did 30 years ago. The kids drool over them. They boast and squabble about them. Even if you remain pretty impervious to the charm of Pikachu, you can just about see why a decades-old Pikachu card is still a tradeable asset."
The editorial piece triggered a significant wave of online backlash from members of the Bitcoin community and cryptocurrency industry leaders, who countered Johnson's claims by outlining Bitcoin's core fundamentals and contending that traditional debt-backed fiat currency systems are the actual Ponzi schemes.
Bitcoiners educate and ridicule Johnson for his take
"Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi requires a central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones," Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor said in response.
"Bitcoin has no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return, just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand," Saylor continued.
Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, a BTC-backed financial product issuer, said that the UK is a "giant Ponzi scheme" financed by debt.