Bitcoin: speculation or revolution? Currency or asset?
Bitcoin: Q&A with Ed Juline
The financial world is still debating, but one thing is certain—Bitcoin isn’t going away. Following our Demystifying Crypto session, we sat down with Ed Juline, currently at Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world, to get his take on Bitcoin’s future. The conversation was engaging, insightful, and at times, eye-opening—an excerpt is presented below.
In this interview, Juline shares his Bitcoin journey, the biggest barriers to adoption, and why he believes Bitcoin is inevitable.
Note: The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Strategy.
Q: What was your first encounter with Bitcoin?
Ed Juline: I stumbled across an article on Gawker back in 2011 about this new “internet money.” Being an early adopter by nature, I was intrigued. It made sense—why wouldn’t the internet have its own currency?
So, I went to the website, put in my credit card, and bought 200 Bitcoin at $6 each. Didn’t think much of it. A year later, I needed $1,200, saw that Bitcoin was still at $6, and sold everything.
Turns out, I missed that it had already hit $100 before dropping back down. Had I noticed, I might have held on. But my real “aha” moment came when, years later, a friend asked about Bitcoin. I casually said, “Yeah, it’s that internet money, probably still $6.” We checked, and it was at $1,000.
That’s when my heart stopped. I rushed to check my old account. Nope—I had sold it. That realization pulled me deeper into understanding what Bitcoin really is.
Q: Bitcoin’s price swings are notorious.
How did you react to its volatility?
Juline: At first, it was just curiosity. I wasn’t emotionally invested. But after seeing the price spike to $1,000, my curiosity turned into serious research.
The wild swings are what throw people off. But when you look deeper, volatility isn’t a flaw—it’s a feature. Bitcoin operates on predictable cycles, tied to math and energy use. It may feel chaotic day to day, but if you zoom out, the long-term growth is surprisingly stable on a logarithmic scale.
I remember being on a business trip in Milan when I casually opened my Coinbase account. My account had 50X-ed since I last checked. I told the driver to pull over—I was literally shaking. That moment cemented my belief that Bitcoin was unlike anything else in finance.
Q: Why do you say Bitcoin is not an investment?
Ed Juline: This is one of the hardest shifts for people to make when they first learn about Bitcoin. We’ve been trained to think of everything in terms of investments—stocks, real estate, bonds. Bitcoin is different.
If you own five Bitcoin today, you’ll still own five Bitcoin in 10, 50, or 1,000 years. The price in dollars, euros, or pesos may change, but that’s a reflection of the weakness of fiat currencies—not Bitcoin itself.
When people say they “invest” in Bitcoin, what they really mean is they’re exiting fiat currency and opting into a scarce, decentralized monetary system. Unlike traditional investments, where companies can dilute shares or governments can print more money, Bitcoin is fixed—there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin, ever.
So, the mindset shift is this: You don’t invest in Bitcoin. You opt out of fiat.
Q: What’s Bitcoin’s biggest advantage for businesses?
Juline: Right now, the dominant narrative is Bitcoin as a store of value—like digital gold. But it’s much more than that.
- It’s a hedge against inflation.
- It’s a borderless payment network.
- It’s a permanent, tamper-proof ledger.
And unlike fiat currency, where supply is manipulated, Bitcoin is truly scarce. There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. No one can print more.
Q: Can Bitcoin help businesses with international transactions?
Juline: It should, but legacy financial systems aren’t giving up easily.
I attended the SWIFT Conference—the biggest international payments event. What struck me was how traditional finance is reacting to crypto. SWIFT has spent years improving its own system, but you can feel the pressure. Ripple, Chainlink, and other blockchain projects were present. Bitcoin wasn’t—because Bitcoin doesn’t have a CEO, a marketing team, or lobbyists.
Bitcoin’s biggest challenge for cross-border transactions isn’t the technology—it’s the financial rails. Governments can’t ban Bitcoin itself, but they can slow down its adoption by controlling the on- and off-ramps—how businesses convert Bitcoin to local currency.
China never banned Bitcoin. What they did was ban the mining industry and restrict banking access. The U.S. is doing something similar through banking regulations. But no government can fully stop it—because Bitcoin doesn’t care.
Q: What are the biggest barriers preventing mainstream business adoption?
Juline: It depends on who you ask. The barriers for a small business aren’t the same as those for a multinational corporation, a government, or Wall Street.
Bitcoin is like the NFL—different people are drawn to it for different reasons. Some see it as a store of value, some love the privacy aspects, some like the freedom from traditional finance, and others just want to speculate. So, there’s no single “one-size-fits-all” argument.
That said, the biggest obstacle for most businesses is simple: “What we’ve been doing has worked.”
For 70+ years, the financial system—fiat currencies, stock markets, and global banking—has been functional enough. If you’re in the U.S. or Europe, the dollar and euro are stable, and inflation is manageable (historically speaking). So why change?
But talk to someone in Argentina, Venezuela, or Turkey, where inflation is eating away at savings, and they get Bitcoin immediately. There’s no barrier. You don’t have to convince them. They’re already looking for a way out of their failing currency.
Q: Is Bitcoin still too volatile for mainstream business adoption?
Juline: Volatility is one of the biggest criticisms of Bitcoin, but as I mentioned earlier, the reality is that volatility is a feature, not a bug.
In the early days, Bitcoin’s price swings were wild—month to month, even week to week. But if you zoom out, looking at year-over-year growth on a logarithmic scale, the price has been remarkably consistent.
And here’s something that really flipped my perspective: as Bitcoin’s price goes up, risk goes down. That’s the opposite of traditional assets like stocks. When a stock price skyrockets, it usually becomes more fragile—one bad earnings report, one regulatory shift, and it can crash.
With Bitcoin, the higher the price, the more adoption, liquidity, and decentralization—which makes it stronger. Over time, volatility should naturally decrease as more institutions and governments adopt it.
Q: What would convince a business leader to take Bitcoin seriously?
Juline: You can’t convince them. They have to convince themselves.
All you can do is spark curiosity. Show them what might be broken in their financial system, and when they feel the pain firsthand, they’ll start looking for alternatives.
It’s like medical technology. If X-rays aren’t good enough, someone invents the MRI. If your money loses purchasing power every year due to inflation, you start looking for sound money.
The biggest resistance comes from those who benefit most from the current system—big banks, financial institutions, and governments that rely on fiat money printing. They see Bitcoin as a threat, and for them, it probably always will be.
Q: What happens when Bitcoin reaches its 21 million supply limit?
Juline: This is a great question that a lot of people don’t think about.
Unlike fiat currency, where central banks can print more whenever they want, Bitcoin has a fixed supply—21 million coins, ever. Once the last Bitcoin is mined (estimated around 2140), miners will be paid entirely in transaction fees instead of newly issued Bitcoin.
Some people worry that this will make Bitcoin unsustainable, but the reality is transaction fees are already a big part of miner revenue and will continue to grow.
More importantly, scarcity drives value. As Bitcoin’s supply becomes even more constrained, demand will likely increase, making it an even stronger store of value.
Q: Looking ahead 5–10 years, where do you see Bitcoin and business?
Juline: Right now, Bitcoin is a tiny fraction of the global financial system. It may have crossed a trillion dollars in market cap, but compare that to real estate, stocks, and gold—it’s still minuscule.
But just like the internet in the ’90s, adoption is accelerating faster than anyone expected.
Imagine telling someone in 1990 that we’d all be carrying around tiny computers in our pockets with access to all the world’s knowledge. They’d say, “Sounds cool, but how?”
That’s where we are with Bitcoin. The how is still unfolding. But in 10 years? It could be the primary way we store and transfer value.
Q: What’s the biggest risk to Bitcoin?
Juline: There is none.
That may sound extreme, but once you truly understand Bitcoin, you realize it’s inevitable.
The only real “risk” is that governments miraculously fix fiat currency—stop printing money and return to a system backed by gold or scarce assets. But let’s be honest… that’s never going to happen.
People used to dismiss Bitcoin as a speculative bubble. But as the price rises, risk actually goes down—because more people own it, more businesses adopt it, and its network effect strengthens. Unlike stocks, where higher prices mean more fragility, Bitcoin’s growth makes it more resilient.
Thank you Ed for your time!
To learn more about Bitcoin, Ed recommends:
Starting with the video “What’s the Problem?”.
‘What’s The Problem?’ – Demystifying why we all need Bitcoin
From there, this website has some excellent other starter videos.
‘What’s The Problem?’ – Demystifying why we all need Bitcoin
For educating kids – Earn $30 when you sign up for Greenlight. With the money app and debit card for kids and teens, we can send our kids money instantly, assign chores, and teach them to earn, save, and invest. https://share.greenlight.com/17432778
Other sources
https://hope.com
https://river.com/signup?r=YYACJAPI