Michael Saylor took his "digital credit" thesis to a Goldman Sachs conference in London, arguing that bitcoin-backed lending has grown past $11 billion in a year. His firm, Strategy, now holds 847,363 BTC even as its shares come under pressure.
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy Inc. (Nasdaq: MSTR), used a late-June appearance at Goldman Sachs' Digital Assets Conference in London to argue that bitcoin is turning from a treasury reserve asset into the foundation of a new credit market. He told the bank's clients he came to discuss bitcoin, digital credit, and the future of capital markets.
His pitch rests on a single mechanic: companies can borrow against their bitcoin holdings to issue yield-bearing instruments, turning a volatile asset into a source of income. By that logic, bitcoin serves as both capital for corporate balance sheets and credit for investors who want exposure without holding the coin directly.
An $11 billion market built from zero
The scale has grown fast. Saylor says bitcoin-backed digital credit has expanded from effectively zero a year ago to more than $11 billion today, financing he credits with helping fund roughly 175,000 BTC in Strategy purchases through the current bear market.
The company itself now holds 847,363 BTC, worth roughly $50.9 billion as of late June, keeping its place as the largest corporate holder of the asset. Saylor has spent six years reshaping the firm from an enterprise-software vendor into a bitcoin buyer, and its MSTR shares are up more than 800% over five years.
At the center sits STRC, a perpetual preferred stock tied to the company's bitcoin. Bitcoin.com News reported that STRC has become the world's largest preferred stock at about $8.5 billion in issuance in under a year. Strategy recently raised its annual dividend rate from roughly 11.5% to 12% to keep the instrument attractive to income investors.
Pressure beneath the pitch
The message arrives at a strained moment. Earlier this week, Strategy's enterprise value briefly fell below the market value of its bitcoin holdings for the first time, erasing the premium investors had long paid for exposure to Saylor's stack. That shift sharpened questions about whether the company's financial engineering can keep outrunning bitcoin's volatility.
Skeptics, including longtime bitcoin critic Peter Schiff, have warned that Strategy's newer capital framework could eventually force bitcoin sales to cover obligations if markets stay weak, a scenario Saylor has repeatedly downplayed. Even so, the firm has kept buying, adding coins in small tranches through the downturn.
Source: Bitcoin.com News
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