Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called bitcoin BTC$71,449.77 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.”

After spending much of 2025 as one of the hottest cryptocurrencies, XRP (XRP 0.74%) has gone through a rough correction. It’s down 54% over the last six months (as of March 10), and a sell-off has quickly followed every recent uptick.

Sometimes, these drawdowns are an opportunity to buy the dip, but they can also be a falling knife. Let’s see whether there’s a good case to buy XRP at the current price.

This drawdown isn’t just an XRP issue

Both the crypto and stock markets are experiencing volatility. Most major cryptocurrencies have also performed poorly over the last six months, with Bitcoin losing 39%, Ethereum declining 54%, and Dogecoin dropping 63%. Stocks have also fluctuated, with investors rotating out of tech into value stocks.

XRP’s drop isn’t due to any significant failures on its part. The downturn has hit the entire crypto market. That said, while most cryptocurrencies suffer during downturns, not all recover when the market rebounds, so it’s not a given that XRP will succeed going forward.

Why XRP could continue to struggle

XRP’s real-world value is based on its role in Ripple Payments, a payment network for financial institutions. Ripple Payments uses blockchain technology to send cross-border payments quickly and with low transaction fees. Banks that partner with Ripple can also use XRP as a bridge currency, converting payments from the sender’s currency to XRP and then to the recipient’s currency.

Today’s Change

(-0.74%) $-0.01

Current Price

$1.39

Key Data Points

Market Cap

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$85B

Day’s Range

$1.39 – $1.40

52wk Range

$1.14 – $3.65

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Volume

1.4B

It’s an interesting idea, but since XRP’s launch way back in 2012, several problems have emerged. Financial institutions can and often do use Ripple Payments without XRP. Of the 300-plus institutions using Ripple Payments, only a handful also use XRP. Even when cross-border payments involve XRP, it serves a brief role. The XRP tokens are converted to the destination currency in seconds.

Ripple also launched its own stablecoin, Ripple USD, last year, and it currently has a market cap of $1.6 billion. Although it’s possible that XRP and Ripple USD can coexist, Ripple USD theoretically works even better as a bridge currency, since it doesn’t have XRP’s volatility.

The Clarity Act is a potential growth catalyst

It’s not all bad news for XRP. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is considering the Clarity Act, which would provide a regulatory framework for digital assets. Notably, it would classify XRP as a digital commodity and not a security. U.S. banks and asset managers would effectively have the green light to fully integrate XRP into operations, including using it as a bridge currency in international payments.

Even if the Clarity Act passes, there’s no guarantee XRP’s price will increase. Last August, issuer Ripple finally ended its lawsuit with the SEC, but closing that book didn’t provide any positive momentum for XRP.

If you’re bullish on XRP, now is a good time to add to your position. However, given the risk involved, you should avoid making it a significant position in your portfolio. Consider investing in other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as cryptocurrency stocks. That way, you can still benefit from a market recovery, even if XRP underperforms.

Two weeks into a Middle Eastern war and bitcoin is higher than where it started.

The largest cryptocurrency was trading at $71,000 on Saturday morning, down 0.7% over the past 24 hours after the U.S. bombed military targets on Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export facility.

The reversal from Friday’s $73,838 high was sharp but contained. Bitcoin gave back 3.5% on the Kharg headlines and stopped. A month ago, a comparable escalation would have triggered a much deeper sell-off.

The weekly numbers tell the resilience story. Bitcoin is up 4.2% over seven days. Ether gained 5.5% to $2,090. Dogecoin added 5%. Solana rose 4.2% to $88. BNB climbed 4.5% to $655. Every major is green on the week despite the war intensifying, not easing.

The market is adapting to the conflict in real time. Early in the war, every headline produced an outsized reaction because nobody could price the tail risk. Now, traders have a framework, where strikes happen, oil spikes and bitcoin dips only to recover again.

The pattern has repeated enough times that the reflexive sell-the-headline impulse has faded. However, the $73,000-$74,000 resistance level stays in place, and has now rejected bitcoin four times in two weeks.

Trump’s language on Kharg Island added a new variable in the markets.

In a Truth Social post late Friday, he said he spared oil infrastructure “for reasons of decency” but would “immediately reconsider” if Iran continued blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran responded that any strike on energy infrastructure would trigger retaliatory attacks on U.S.-linked facilities in the region. That’s a conditional escalation threat that didn’t exist 48 hours ago. If oil infrastructure becomes a target, the supply disruption, which the IEA already called the largest in history, gets dramatically worse.

Meanwhile, the $371 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours reflected the two-way nature of Friday’s session. Short liquidations outpaced longs at $207 million versus $163 million, meaning the initial surge to $73,800 squeezed bears before the Kharg headlines squeezed the longs who had just entered.

Attention now shifts to the Fed meeting on March 17-18. Oil above $100, the largest energy supply disruption in history, and a war entering its third week with no resolution make the stagflation case harder to dismiss.

CME FedWatch still prices a 95%+ probability of a hold at 3.5% to 3.75%, but the dot plot and Powell’s press conference will matter more than the decision itself. Any hint that rate hikes are back on the table would hit risk assets hard, including a crypto market that has spent five months pricing in cuts that keep not arriving.