‘Unethical and illegal from the very beginning’

Michael Saylor, the MicroStrategy executive chairman and major Bitcoin (BTC) bull, shared his perspective on the fall of the FTX empire in a recent interview.

Saylor said that for years there has been a low-grade “boiling guerrilla war” between the BTC community and the larger crypto community over industry practices that he repeatedly called “shitcoinery.”

In Saylor’s perspective, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was “the poster child” of the latter.

“There is something ethically broken about being able to issue your own unregistered security. Sam and most of the people in the crypto world were always guilty of the sin of shitcoinery.”

Saylor attributes such behavior to his perceptions of the crypto community’s inherent problems: greed, arrogance and foolishness.

Saylor said that the “diabolical twist” in the FTX story was that SBH generated billions of dollars out of tokens he printed out of thin air, as well as issuing himself billions in loans from customer funds.

While many have debunked the story of SBF and his mismanagement of funds, the community on Reddit applauded Saylor for his clear explanation of the situation and a straightforward comparison with BTC.

One user wrote that although they don’t care for Saylor otherwise, his explanation was one of “the best in the entire space.”

Related: First time bear market? Advice from Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor

This was not Saylor’s first comment surrounding the FTX scandal. In the early days of the unraveling, he was one of the first, along with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, to urge the community to practice self-custody.

The entire crypto community awaits the Dec. 13 hearing, which will investigate the collapse of the exchange. According to the committee leading the hearing, they expect SBF and associated individuals to appear in court to testify on this date.