Sun March 15, 2026 ▪
6
min read ▪ by
Bitcoin is used to being called all sorts of names by different personalities. Central bankers, Nobel laureates in economics, heads of state: each had their own scathing remarks. This time it’s the former resident of Number 10 Downing Street who steps up. Boris Johnson picks up his pen and lashes out at the cryptocurrency queen. But the attack can backfire against its author.
In short
- Boris Johnson called Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme in a Daily Mail column shared on
- The former prime minister tells the story of a friend who lost £20,000 in a crypto scam.
- Michael Saylor responded that Bitcoin, unlike Ponzi schemes, has no issuer, promoter, or guaranteed return.
- The Johnson administration laid the foundations for UK crypto regulation between 2019 and 2022.
BoJo attack: friend, pub and £20,000 gone
Bitcoin news: it all starts in an English village, right near a church attended by a former prime minister. A retired friend, a former visibly naive businessman, meets a stranger one ordinary evening in a pub. The man he meets then promises him the moon and the stars with disarming confidence. He claims he can quickly double his money with Bitcoin without any risk.
The potential victim first coughs up £500, seduced by the tempting prospect. After that, he pays additional fees for three long and a half years. Eventually, the 20,000 pounds evaporates into thin air, leaving a bitter taste.
Johnson tells this enlightening story in the Daily Mail and then shares it on X:
I have suspected for a long time that Bitcoin is a huge Ponzi scheme, and now I am hearing tragic stories that make me fear that I might be right.
The former Downing Street resident likens the digital asset to Pokemon cards. These little Japanese monsters have a thirty-year history and a palpable cultural appeal, he explains. Bitcoin? “Just a string of numbers stored in a series of computers“.
The provocation is on and will provoke the entire industry.
The crypto industry’s unified response to the accusations of the former prime minister
Michael Saylor will not let this attack go by without responding as firmly as possible. The head of Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, responds point by point in a scathing tweet.
Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi requires a central operator who promises returns and pays early investors with the funds of later ones. Bitcoin has no issuer, no promoter, no guaranteed return – just an open and decentralized monetary network, powered by code and market demand.
Michael Saylor
The definition is clear, technical, and completely unassailable to Bitcoin defenders. Other voices are quickly being raised to oppose the former resident of 10 Downing Street.
Pierre Rochard of The Bitcoin Bond Company reverses the argument with a charming provocation. The UK is a giant debt-financed Ponzi scheme, he says without hesitation.
Kwasi Kwarteng, Johnson’s former Chancellor, compares Bitcoin to the Internet with some relevance. No one calls the site a pyramid, he rightly reminds in his answer.
Paolo Ardoino highlights comments from the X community that clearly explain why Bitcoin is not a Ponzi. Adam Back, a legend of the sector, simply responds with the affectionate nickname “Bozza” on the social network.
Johnson’s paradox: the one who criticizes Bitcoin is the one who opened the door
Let’s go back a few years to assess the full irony of the current situation. Between 2019 and 2022, Boris Johnson held the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with a comfortable majority. His finance minister was Rishi Sunak, who has clear ambitions. He wants to make London a global hub for cryptocurrencies, a bastion of this burgeoning industry.
It was under Johnson that the FCA began to methodically structure the regulation of digital assets. It was for him that stablecoins were recognized by the government as a potential means of payment. Johnson’s administration laid the foundation upon which his successors would patiently build year after year.
Today, Bitcoin ETFs are approved in London and regulation continues to progress. Kwasi Kwarteng, his former co-worker turned Bitcoin advocate, extends the friendly bridge: “We’ll talk about it over lunch next week and I’ll have you transferred in a little while“.
The discrepancy is huge, almost laughable to seasoned observers of the sector. Johnson helped create the framework that now protects British investors.
BoJo’s media whirlwind in key figures
- £20,000: amount Johnson’s friend allegedly lost in crypto scam;
- $71,656: BTC price at the time this article was written;
- 3.5 years: the time the victim has been paying fees without getting their funds back;
- 30 years: the age of Pokemon cards, according to Johnson’s argument;
- 0 issuers: the number of central authorities behind the Bitcoin protocol, according to Michael Saylor.
For BoJo, it may be a Ponzi scheme that needs serious investigation rather than decentralized Bitcoin. But for millions of investors, both institutional and individual, no turning back is now conceivable. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have just seen five consecutive days of inflows, a sign that the market is moving inexorably forward.
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The blockchain and crypto revolution is in full swing! And on the day the effects are felt by the most vulnerable economy in this world, I will say against all hope that I had something to do with it
DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be taken as investment advice. Before making any investment decision, do your own research.
