The Canadian company NexTech AR Solutions at the end of December announced the purchase of bitcoin as a reserve asset, but did not hold the cryptocurrency for long. This week NexTech announced the sale of its 130 BTC for a profit of about $ 200,000. NexTech CEO Evan Gappelberg linked the decision to reports of re-spending on the Bitcoin network.
“The sale reflects our awareness that something has potentially changed in bitcoin, considered a digital version of gold,” he said. – News has emerged that a critical vulnerability called “re-spending” could arise. If someone was able to actually spend bitcoins twice, it would undermine the credibility of the entire system. If the system is based on limited supply and trust, “re-spend” violates both of these factors, essentially destroying the store of value that Bitcoin should have been. In light of the potential outcome described, I decided to withdraw the money while this story continues to develop. ”
Note that the reports of re-spending were misinformation, and the cryptocurrency network worked as it should under the rules of consensus. Nevertheless, news of this reached the world’s largest financial media, including Business Insider and Bloomberg, and could indeed negatively affect the price of BTC, which was already under increased pressure from sellers.
In the case of NexTech, however, there may be another explanation for the decision to sell the reserve asset. MicroStrategy, which first announced the purchase of bitcoin in the summer and has since invested over $ 1 billion in cryptocurrency, set an example for other companies listed on the stock market – during this time its shares have more than quadrupled from $ 125 to $ 577.
Commenting on the acquisition of Bitcoin in December, Gappelberg said:
“Our investment in bitcoin is part of our new strategy to diversify capital to maximize long-term value for our shareholders. This initial investment reflects our belief that bitcoin is a long-term store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term growth potential than holding traditional currency. Bitcoin is a digital version of gold that has a capitalization of $ 10 trillion versus just $ 500 billion in bitcoin. We believe that as part of the digital transformation, a paradigm shift is taking place towards digital gold and bitcoin is increasingly seen as a store of value on par with gold, which it will catch up with. The company feels that with the continued spread of bitcoin, the time has come for this movement. ”
Here, Happelberg almost word for word repeats the speeches of MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, who in the past predicted the inevitable decline of bitcoin, but since his own investment has become one of the most active popularizers of the cryptocurrency. If NexTech, specializing in augmented reality technologies, hoped to repeat the success of MicroStrategy, it failed to do so. Having shown no visible rise after the announcement, NexTech shares went down and lost more than 30% in price in three weeks.
Now Gappelberg, most likely, expects to return everything back, confirming by his own example that not every institutional investor has long-term prospects when buying bitcoin.
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