Micheal Dell, the founder of the computer technologies giant Dell Company thinks blockchain technology is one of the underrated industries. He however failed to comment on whether Bitcoin is underrated or not, instead choosing to “pass”.
Speaking to the New York Times for its DealBook newsletter, Dell was asked to mention whether certain things in the tech and finance industries are overrated, underrated or properly rated. He said, “I think blockchain is probably underrated. Bitcoin, I’m going to pass on that. I don’t really know.”
The Dell company has history with Bitcoin. It was the earliest adopter of crypto as a payment method. It accepted Bitcoin payments in 2014, when it was not on the mainstream radar. However, it had to stop the Bitcoin transactions in 2017, citing low demand.
By passing over the Bitcoin status, it is quite hard to tell the current relationship between Dell and Bitcoin. Even though Dell remains a leading tech company with a market cap of $80billion, Bitcoin has also grown massively over the years. At the time, Dell was accepting Bitcoin was only worth around $160. These values have since grown as the coin currently trades at $54,664 with a market cap of $1,030,011,500,057.
At the same time, Bitcoin has become aggressively accepted. The coin has become mainstream with various merchants accepting it as a payment method. Even countries like El Salvador currently accept it as a legal tender.
Maybe by agreeing that Bitcoin was underrated, it would have to mean Dell was wrong to stop accepting Bitcoin. That would have not been the best image to portray for the company.
Still, Dell is not the only company to have accepted Bitcoin payment then stopped. Tesla is one of the most high profile companies to have done that. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, cited the negative environmental factors as the reason the company stopped Bitcoin as a payment method. He then later clarified that the company was willing to resume the Bitcoin payments once the environmental concerns are sorted.
Crypto market implications
Even though the crypto market has become mainstream, it retains its volatile nature. Comments from influential figures like Michael Dell tend to have ramifications on the market. For example, a tweet by Elon Musk can lead to a rise in the market value within a few moments. As a speculative type of investment most investors are looking for the influencer’s opinions when making trading decisions.
By staying neutral on Bitcoin’s position, Dell has helped ensure the market stays stable for the moment. No one will either buy or sell the crypto-based on no comments.
At the same time, the lack of comments can also be seen as a lack of support for the leading crypto. Michael Dell is a big fan of blockchain technology and recently mentioned it alongside the AI-driven biotech and autonomous vehicles as the potential revenue generators for the Dell company.
Bitcoin has experienced a mixed 2021 so far. Even though it had a bullish first half of the year, the second year has not been so straightforward. It one time lowered to around $30,000 following the China crypto crackdown. It has however regained and is likely to resume the bull run.
