Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is Primitive Financial Energy, Strategy Converts it into Digital Credit
Strategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor stated on Bloomberg's "Crypto" program that Bitcoin is primitive financial energy, and the company converts it into digital credit. He discussed the Bitcoin bull market setup, AI and scarcity, and the future of digital credit with Tim Stenovec and Carol Massar at noon that day.
Saylor described Bitcoin as having a volatility of about 40 and an annualized return of about 40% since 2020, predicting a future annual growth of 20% to 30% over the next twenty years, with prices returning above $100,000 in this cycle. He noted that headwinds are turning into tailwinds, including friendlier U.S. regulations, rising bank adoption, and growth in tokenized securities. The company positions itself as a structured finance company while holding Bitcoin, dollars, equity, and credit.
Strategy provides digital credit through the issuance of priority securities like STRC, targeting returns of 10% to 12%, and pays in the form of capital returns to defer taxes. Saylor stated that digital credit volatility is below 10, paying about a 10% dividend; compared to returns of about 3.5% to 4% in money markets and 8% to 9% in private credit, digital credit offers higher yields. The company currently holds about 846,000 Bitcoins and approximately $6.09 billion in dollar assets, and continues to repurchase STRC.
Saylor views AI as a demand driver for scarce capital, pointing out that assets that cannot be created by robots hold value. He categorizes investment horizons into money markets, STRC, Bitcoin, and MSTR, corresponding to different risk and return preferences. The company's advantage lies in building high-performance digital credit based on high-performance capital, continuously acquiring Bitcoin while issuing digital credit during bull markets.
Saylor expressed disappointment over MSCI potentially removing the company from its index but stated that the impact is limited. He also mentioned that the stagnation of federal legislation has removed restrictive clauses, allowing more favorable institutional guidance to drive industry expansion. Bitcoin serves as the foundational layer of digital capital, supporting the layered structure of digital credit and digital equity.
Funds are flowing from Bitcoin holdings and equity issuance into the issuance and repurchase of digital credit products. The event is driven by public statements from company executives. STRC holders benefit from relatively stable dollar returns, while MSTR equity holders gain amplified exposure through the growth of Bitcoin per share; traditional credit products face yield competition from digital credit.
Source: Public Information
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Since 2020, Saylor has continuously increased Bitcoin holdings through equity and debt financing after MicroStrategy (now Strategy) shifted to a Bitcoin treasury strategy, growing from tens of thousands of coins to approximately 846,000 coins currently. In 2026, the company launched a digital credit framework, using STRC priority securities as the core product, aiming to provide 10% to 12% dollar returns while reducing volatility relative to Bitcoin, and allowing limited Bitcoin sales for liquidity management and repurchase.
Capital is shifting from pure Bitcoin holdings to a layered product structure. The company positions Bitcoin as the foundational layer of digital capital, stripping some volatility into digital credit through the issuance of STRC, and using MSTR common stock as amplified digital equity. Dollar reserves cover priority stock dividends and interest, with issuance and repurchase mechanisms used to manage STRC circulation; recently, the company has been repurchasing STRC and slightly increasing Bitcoin holdings, reallocating capital between Bitcoin accumulation and credit liabilities.
Similar to traditional structured finance, where priority securities and common stock are supported by collateral, or the different risk exposures of gold ETFs and gold mining stocks, Strategy splits a single scarce asset into investable capital, credit, and equity products. The company is currently transitioning from a Bitcoin treasury company to a Bitcoin-supported structured finance company, with the scale of digital credit growing from zero to over $11 billion in asset classes.
Essentially, this is about capital concentration. The scarcity and high volatility of Bitcoin make single holdings difficult to cover different time horizons and risk preferences; the company attracts traditional credit and money market funds into Bitcoin-related exposures by concentrating some cash flow and volatility management rights on its balance sheet through the issuance of priority securities. This change occurs because traditional credit yields are low, while Bitcoin-supported products can provide higher nominal returns through capital structure engineering, concentrating capital from dispersed Bitcoin holdings into investable financial products that can be layered.
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- The next layer of scarce assets is credit that can strip volatility.
- The yield of digital capital depends on the engineering of the capital structure.
- Acquire underlying assets while issuing upper-layer products in a bull market.