Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, says Bitcoin is different from the rest of crypto.
In a recent interview, Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin and partner at Bitcoiner Ventures, explained why he believes Bitcoin is fundamentally unlike other cryptocurrencies. Asked whether Bitcoin could be considered a Ponzi scheme, Klippsten replied:
“Why is Bitcoin not a Ponzi scheme? The big difference is that there is no entity or group of people that control Bitcoin who are marketing Bitcoin to be able to dump it. If anything, most Bitcoiners that promote Bitcoin are just buying and holding as much as possible — and people who love it the most are the people who never sell.”
Klippsten said he has been increasing his media activity to help protect people from the fallout of high-profile failures like the Terra collapse and Celsius liquidations. He emphasized the need to distinguish Bitcoin from the wider crypto industry:
“When I’m out there talking to media, honestly, I think the number one message that I try to get across is that Bitcoin is not part of the crypto industry. There’s Bitcoin, and there’s other things that call themselves crypto. It’s in the interest of crypto people to try to put Bitcoin under that umbrella. And it’s clearly in the interests of Bitcoiners and Bitcoin companies to separate Bitcoin from crypto. So that’s the message that I try to convey very clearly with every one of these outlets.”
“The difference between Bitcoin and other crypto assets is something that crypto publications understand, but the mainstream press? They’re blown away — they thought all crypto people are basically crypto bros trying to grift.”
Klippsten also addressed the lessons from the collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin, which highlighted risks inherent to algorithmic stablecoins. He argued that maintaining a stable peg to the U.S. dollar is extremely difficult without centralized market operations:
“Well, there are two different stablecoins: collateralized and uncollateralized. You can’t have a decentralized, algorithmic stablecoin maintain a peg. You need to have a centralized team conducting market operations, else you will just not be able to maintain the peg in times of stress. This is something the Basis team discovered in 2018 — and they were way smarter than Do Kwon or anybody else working on stablecoins today. Basis realized that this stablecoin thing couldn’t be anything other than a security. So they decided to refund the investors’ money.”
Klippsten’s perspective reflects a broader effort among Bitcoin advocates to separate Bitcoin’s narrative from the controversies and failures that have affected other crypto projects. By emphasizing Bitcoin’s decentralized protocol, limited supply, and the absence of a controlling entity, proponents like Klippsten aim to reassure both investors and the public about its unique role in the digital asset landscape.
As of the interview, Bitcoin was trading above $23,000 after several weeks of strong performance, a price level that underscores continued interest in the asset despite turbulence elsewhere in the market.