TLDR

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Bitcoin a “giant Ponzi scheme” in a Daily Mail column.
Johnson shared a story of a villager who lost £20,000 (~$26,450) to what he described as a Bitcoin scam.
He questioned why people should trust a system created by a pseudonymous entity, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Strategy chairman Michael Saylor pushed back, saying Bitcoin has no issuer, promoter, or guaranteed return.
Others on social media pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply and open-source code as evidence it does not fit the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sparked a debate in the crypto world this week after calling Bitcoin a “giant Ponzi scheme” in a widely-read newspaper column. The response from the crypto community was fast and direct.

I’ve long suspected Bitcoin is a giant Ponzi scheme and now I’m hearing tales of woe that make me fear I’m right.https://t.co/rTny2NBaYB

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 13, 2026

Johnson published his views in the Daily Mail on Friday, March 14, 2026. The piece opened with a story about a man from his village in Oxfordshire who handed £500 (~$661) to someone in a pub who promised to double it through Bitcoin.

That man spent three and a half years paying fees and trying to get his money back. He never could. He ended up losing around £20,000 (~$26,450), and Johnson said the man “was struggling to pay his bills.”

Johnson used the story to argue that Bitcoin has no real underlying value. He compared it unfavorably to gold and even Pokémon cards, saying those at least have cultural or physical appeal.

“These curious little Japanese cartoon beasties seem to exercise the same fascination over the five-year-old mind as they did 30 years ago,” Johnson wrote, suggesting Pokémon cards are more tradable than Bitcoin.

He also questioned the legitimacy of a financial system built by someone who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous figure whose real identity is still unknown.

“Who do we talk to if they decrypt the crypto?” Johnson asked in the column.

Michael Saylor Responds

The reaction from the crypto industry came quickly. Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy — the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin — responded directly to Johnson’s claims.

Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi requires a central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones. Bitcoin has no issuer, no promoter, and no guaranteed return—just an open, decentralized monetary network driven by code and market demand.

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) March 13, 2026

Saylor said a Ponzi scheme requires a “central operator promising returns and paying early investors with funds from later ones.” He said Bitcoin does not meet that definition.

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

Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, also responded. He argued that the UK itself is “a giant Ponzi scheme” financed by debt.

Community Notes and Social Media Pushback

On X, a community note was added to Johnson’s post. It pointed out that Ponzi schemes promise artificially high returns with little to no risk. The note read: “Bitcoin has no issuer and its value is purely determined by the free market. The code is totally public and opt-in.”

Others pointed to Bitcoin’s fixed supply cap and its open-source, public code as key differences from a traditional Ponzi structure.

BitMEX Research responded to Johnson’s question about who is in charge of Bitcoin with a simple answer: “Nobody is in charge.”

Some users responded with memes and criticized central banks for expanding the money supply during the pandemic.

The column and responses came the same week the Bitcoin network produced its 20 millionth coin, a milestone that drew attention to Bitcoin’s hard-coded supply limit of 21 million coins.

The post Boris Johnson Calls Bitcoin a ‘Ponzi Scheme,’ Saylor Hits Back appeared first on CoinCentral.

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Filed under: News - @ March 15, 2026 8:07 am