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- Adam Back placed a $0.02 limit order to buy all Bitcoin if the market collapsed.
- The order was symbolic, aimed at boosting confidence and outbidding another crypto investor.
- Back cancelled the order later and redirected the funds to purchase Bitcoin at market value.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has revealed that he once placed a buy order to purchase all available Bitcoin at just $0.02. He did so in case a disastrous price crash took place in the crypto market.
The revelation came after Back responded to a tweet by MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor, who said that Bitcoin is either going to zero or to a million dollars. Back responded by saying that the limit order that he placed on the Bitfinex exchange was years old, and he had been planning to buy all of the Bitcoin at two cents. This action was intended to help avoid the collapse of Bitcoin, which was close to nothing, and to make a vivid statement concerning the positive message toward the market.
Aimed Bid Meant to Undercut Rivals and Send a Market-Stabilizing Signal
He indicated that the bid was to trump a similar order by venture capitalist Alistair Milne, who had aimed at fetching a price at a level of one cent. Later, Back rescinded the order, opting instead to buy Bitcoin at sensible market prices using liquidity. He made it clear that the initial proposal was developed in 2020, and the main thought was not buying all of the 21 million BTC but rather making a statement.
His act was mostly symbolic, but Back’s remark raised questions about price fluctuations and efforts by key stakeholders to support Bitcoin’s value. The feasibility of such an order was doubted, as it turned out that approximately 2 million worth of BTC remains trapped in mining, and much of what has already been mined has found itself in cold wrapping or owned by institutional holdings.
Institutional Holdings Make a Full BTC Buyout Impossible
As Bitcoin has continued to be dominated by institutional investors, a scenario whereby an individual can purchase the entire supply has been eliminated as farfetched. Together, MicroStrategy owns about 582,000 BTC, or more than 61 billion dollars. This follows huge holding by spot bitcoin ETFs offered by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, and other companies.
Therefore, the possible decline of Bitcoin by quite a serious margin would leave most coins unattainable, suggesting long-term conservation, ETF ownership, and dormant addresses. The ambitious historical order provided by Back was not able to compare with the complexity of the distribution and locked sufficiency of the present supply of Bitcoin.
When Adam Back made his daring ambition of at least 0.02, then it became an attempt to guard against the collapse that Bitcoin might be facing. Although this was not carried out, it is an indication of the belief of resource control in the crypto leadership on Bitcoin’s persisting value and the power of institutional support.
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