The founder and executive chairman of enterprise software firm MicroStrategy says that the demand for Bitcoin (BTC) is outstripping its supply.

In a new interview on CNBC Television, BTC firebrand Michael Saylor says that the approval of spot market Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US has triggered massive demand for the flagship digital asset.

“There’s 10 years of pent-up demand. People have been waiting for these ETFs. And finally mainstream investors are able to access Bitcoin.

And I think that’s what’s driving the surge of capital in the asset class. Initially, there was a rebalancing as people were moving capital between the futures market and the miners and MicroStrategy and the ETFs.

But following that rebalancing, I think the asset’s found its footing and now people are beginning to realize that there’s 10 times as much demand for Bitcoin coming in through these ETFs as there is supply coming from the natural sellers who are the miners.”

Spot market Bitcoin ETFs give investors exposure to the crypto king without having to actually purchase the asset itself. They were approved in January by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to Saylor, the top crypto asset by market cap has become the “world’s most popular investment asset”.

“[Bitcoin] it’s novel, it’s digital, it’s global, it’s unique. And it’s uncorrelated to traditional risk assets because it doesn’t come with exposure to any given country, currency, company, quarterly result, product cycle, competitor.

Not to weather, not to war, not to an employee base or supply chain. And so that makes it a natural addition to the portfolio of a responsible investor.”

Bitcoin is trading at $49,554 at time of writing, up by about 17% over the past seven days.

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