Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have been trending back and forth over the past month, with bitcoin now falling about 50% from its April peak.

The bitcoin price rout was sparked by China’s latest crackdown on bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners, who use powerful computers to secure cryptocurrency blockchains and validate transactions in exchange for newly created tokens. .

Today, Michael Saylor, chief executive of business intelligence software company turned into a bitcoin accumulator Microstrategy, warned that China’s expulsion of bitcoin and crypto miners could be a “trillion-dollar mistake.” dollars ”.

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“I think, given the growth rate of bitcoin, this will turn out to be a trillion dollar mistake for China,” Saylor said, speaking on Bloomberg Television, and highlighting China’s “50% bitcoin market share” and bitcoin’s “100% year-over-year” growth.

“It’s a tragedy for Chinese miners [and] it’s a geopolitical mistake for China, the country, but I guess they could afford to make a trillion dollar mistake. “

The price of bitcoin has been hit in recent weeks by China’s latest bitcoin and crypto crackdown, which, along with Elon Musk’s concerns about bitcoin’s energy consumption, wiped out more than $ 1 trillion from the market. combined cryptocurrency market.

Until recently, China is believed to have contributed over 50% of bitcoin’s mining capacity, however, authorities in the country began last month ordering bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners to shut down. their operations. According to the public newspaper The Global Times, 90% of bitcoin mines in the Chinese province of Sichuan were closed last weekend, causing the price of bitcoin to drop sharply.

“It’s a nuisance and a dislocation for bitcoin in the short term, you can see the volatility of the trade,” Saylor said. “A lot of Chinese have had to sell bitcoins through forced liquidations and with a delay because they had to leave the country and all of their loans were withdrawn, which therefore presented a great opportunity for Western investors.”

The United States has become a top destination for bitcoin miners fleeing China. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez last week said he was working to lower the cost of electricity in order to get bitcoin miners to move to Florida.

“This is a boon for North American bitcoin miners whose costs are the same and they are going to generate 50 or 75% more revenue for a while because the business in China has been taken offline,” said Saylor.

On Monday, Microstrategy revealed that it now has more than 100,000 bitcoins after making another bitcoin purchase, this time spending just under $ 500 million on some 13,000 coins, although Saylor said he would have been prepared to pay a lot more.

“Companies like mine bought bitcoin in the $ 30,000 range, we would have paid double or even triple if it hadn’t been for the Chinese exodus, so we took advantage of it.”

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Despite the bitcoin price turmoil over the past few weeks, Saylor is optimistic about the prospects for bitcoin – “Biden being elected president was good at bitcoin, Gary Gensler took over. [Securities and Exchange Commission] was good for bitcoin “- and expects a U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded fund to eventually be approved.

“The new class of regulators are progressive and more enlightened on bitcoin,” Saylor said, pointing to a number of Wall Street banks that have recently rolled out bitcoin-related products and the much-publicized Nasdaq debut of bitcoin and crypto based. in San Francisco. Coinbase exchange, which turned out to be the peak of the bitcoin bull run in early 2021.

As Microstrategy’s share price has plummeted in recent months, Saylor said he would rather “win with something different, rather than sit at $ 60 a share without hope.”

Microstrategy’s shares have skyrocketed since it first announced it had bought bitcoin in August of last year, with its shares rising about 400%. Its stock peaked in February but has since halved.

“You just have to be patient and look at the long-term technological trend,” Saylor added. “If you believe in [big tech], then the next logical thing to dematerialize is ownership of 5 billion cell phones. “