Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called bitcoin BTC$70,663.65 a “giant Ponzi scheme,” prompting a swift rebuttal from Strategy chairman Michael Saylor and other netizens.

In a column published in the Daily Mail and posted on social media platform X, Johnson wrote that he had long suspected cryptocurrencies relied on “a supply of new and credulous investors” rather than real value. He pointed to a story from his village in Oxfordshire about a retired man who handed £500 ($661) to someone in a pub who promised to double the money through bitcoin.

According to Johnson’s account, the man spent three and a half years paying fees and trying to withdraw funds. He ultimately lost about £20,000 ($ 26,450), referring to what he admitted was “some kind of scam.”

Johnson argued that assets such as gold or even collectibles like Pokémon cards hold some cultural or physical appeal. Bitcoin, he wrote, is “just a string of numbers stored in a series of computers.”

He also questioned why people should trust a system created by a pseudonymous entity, Satoshi Nakamoto, without institutional backing.

“Who do we talk to if they decrypt the crypto?” Johnson asked. “There’s no one except this Nakamoto, who may be no more real than Pikachu or Charmander themselves.”

Community push back

Reacting to the column, the cryptocurrency community pushed back against Johnson’s claims.

Saylor, Executive Chairman of the world’s largest corporate bitcoin holder Strategy (MSTR), refuted the claims, saying a Ponzi scheme requires a “central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones.”

Bitcoin, Saylor added, has “no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return—just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand.”

On X, in the "community notes program," a note was added pointing out that Ponzi schemes promise artificially high rates of returns with next to no risk.

“Bitcoin has no issuer and its value is purely determined by the free market. The code is totally public and opt-in. Nobody can force you to run any particular version,” the note reads.

Other responses ranged from technical explanations of Bitcoin’s design to broader criticism of government monetary policy.

Other responses ranged from technical explanations of Bitcoin’s design to broader criticism of government monetary policy. Some users pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply and decentralized network as evidence that it differs from classic Ponzi structures

Others took a more combative tone, posting memes and criticizing central banks for expanding the money supply during the pandemic. As for who’s in charge, BitMEX Research replied, “nobody is in charge.”