- Michael Saylor’s take on Bitcoin holders taking their BTC with them after death.
- Why pass keys destruction could contribute to more value in the future.
Picture this, a prominent person who privately owns a lot of Bitcoin unfortunately passes away.
Chances are that the contents of the deceased person’s private wallet, including BTC holdings, will be lost forever unless someone accesses the pass keys.
However, MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor revealed in a recent interview that he champions the idea of burning Bitcoin keys after death. This outcome would guarantee the loss or inaccessibility of the BTC involved.
Saylor went as far as describing the burning of private keys after death as a pro rata contribution to all other BTC holders.
This suggests that Saylor might be trying to pull off such a move with his Bitcoin holdings when his lease on life ends.
Impact of burning private keys for Bitcoin wallets
Saylor’s statement regarding the burning of private keys is rooted in the digital currency’s real scarcity. While the maximum supply of BTC is capped at $21 million, a lot of Bitcoin is also lost along the way.
Especially in the form of lost addresses, whether due to loss of pass keys or the death of the wallet holder.
Those lost coins contribute to the value or floor price of Bitcoin, since they will never be moved again in the future. This essentially makes Bitcoin more scarce and more valuable over time.
The MicroStrategy CEO’s statement is a callback to Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. The latter’s wallet contains 1 million Bitcoin, minted in the network’s early days.
The BTC in Satoshi’s wallet remained dormant ever since the mysterious figure believed to be Bitcoin’s founder went silent.
There was some speculation that Hal Finney may have been Satoshi Nakamoto. However, he denied those claims, and later died in 2014.
Some still believe that Finney was the founder of Bitcoin, considering that he was a software developer and cryptographer.
This was largely due to his involvement in the network during its early days — Finney received the first BTC sent on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Back to the 1 million unmoved BTC, if more Bitcoin billionaires go down the same route, the floor price will keep rising.
This means the remaining coins exchanging hands on the internet could become even more valuable in the long run.
Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price Prediction 2025–2026
Meanwhile, Saylor currently owns 17,732 BTC, which at present market value equates to over $1.7 billion. There are less than 30 known BTC billionaires as per the latest data.
Saylor noted that he wants to leave a legacy of having influenced institutional Bitcoin adoption.
