The FTX CEO said in an interview with the Financial Times that Bitcoin has no future as a payments network.
To pay or not to pay, that is the question.
It is the question that has always been plaguing bitcoin holders as they struggle with reconciling Bitcoin as a store of value and Bitcoin as a means of payment.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried came out clearly in favor of the former in an interview with the Financial Times. He said that Bitcoin has no future as a payments network due to its inefficiency and high environmental costs. According to SBF, proof-of-stake blockchains are better suited as payment solutions since they are cheaper and less power-hungry.
However, Bankman-Fried also said that Bitcoin has potential as "an asset, a commodity and a store of value." He reaffirmed this stance in a tweet.
Commentators were quick to notice that Bankman-Fried has recently been fairly critical of the industry that has made him a billionaire.
A few weeks ago, SBF famously tried to explain yield farming and compared it to being a Ponzi scheme.
Even though SBF did not take the Lightning Network into account, his comments are backed up by some data. For example, only 40% of Salvadorians use the country's Chivo Bitcoin Wallet, even though BTC has been legal tender in El Salvador for several months. Indeed, many investors prefer to hold on to their coins, which is why the HODL mentality is particularly strong in the Bitcoin community.
Bankman-Fried's comments come shortly after news broke that he acquired a 7.6% stake in the trading app Robinhood. The company's stock bounced on the news. The FTX CEO also has close ties to Solana — a layer-one blockchain with high transaction speed that may be better suited to being a payment network were it not for its repeated outages.
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