Michael Saylor Highlights Bitcoin's Fundamental Breakthroughs and Strategy's Digital Credit Vision

Translated by: Felix, PANews

Recently, Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy, appeared as a guest on the What Bitcoin Did podcast, engaging in an in-depth conversation with host Danny Knowles.

In the interview, Saylor pointed out that Bitcoin's true victory lies not in short-term price movements, but in the historical breakthrough of fundamentals—from the restoration of insurance, the adoption of fair value accounting standards, to the full acceptance by the banking credit system. At the same time, he shared Strategy's grand vision of building "digital credit," and responded to external doubts about the DAT company. The following are the highlights.

Fundamental factors are experiencing multiple breakthroughs, with institutional adoption being the biggest advancement.

Danny:Bitcoin is 17 years old now, and last year was somewhat disappointing for Bitcoin—it wasn't what I had expected, and it was also tough for companies that issued Bitcoin-related products, especially in the second half of the year, which was really challenging.You anticipated 2025 Is the annual meeting like this?

SaylorI don't think this has been a disappointing year. The only disappointing aspect is the price at the end of the year.In fact, in the first week of the last quarter (October), Bitcoin hit a new all-time high. The entire community has a very short memory, mainly discussing events from the past five days. In 2024, about 30 to 60 companies held Bitcoin on their balance sheets, and by the end of 2025, this number is expected to reach around 200. So, in my view, the fundamentals look quite strong. Bitcoin hit a new high, and 100 additional companies are expected to hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets.

If we list the events that occurred in 2025, we will find that we have reached a historical high.

First, insurance was restored in 2025. When we purchased Bitcoin in 2020, the insurance company terminated our policy, leaving us without insurance coverage. For the entire four years, I had to personally underwrite the company's risk. At one point, the company held assets of $20 billion, $30 billion, $40 billion, yet we couldn't afford a $40 million insurance policy. If I hadn't used my personal assets to underwrite the company, this strategy simply wouldn't have existed.

We returned to profitability in 2025. We adopted the fair value accounting method, and now the company is finally able to generate profits. We have consistently faced the issue of the minimum alternative corporate tax. Do publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin need to pay unrealized capital gains tax? This question was resolved in 2025 with proactive guidance from the government. As a result, we were not impacted by unrealized capital gains tax.

Then, in 2025, the government officially recognized Bitcoin as the world's primary and largest digital commodity. Following this, the price of Bitcoin reached a new all-time high. At the beginning of the year, it was impossible to obtain a loan of even five cents by using $1 billion worth of Bitcoin as collateral. However, by the end of the year, most major U.S. banks had started issuing loans secured by IBIT, and about a quarter of them announced plans to begin issuing loans backed by BTC. By early 2026, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were both discussing the buying, selling, and handling of Bitcoin.

The Ministry of Finance has also provided positive guidance on including crypto assets in bank balance sheets. The chairs of the U.S. CFTC and SEC have also expressed support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In addition, the commercialization of Bitcoin derivatives markets by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has been observed. You have also seen a physical creation and redemption mechanism, allowing you to exchange $1 million worth of Bitcoin for $1 million worth of IBIT, and vice versa. Exchanging $1 million worth of IBIT for $1 million worth of Bitcoin is tax-free.

So,If I list all the fundamental elements required for the commercialization, globalization, and institutionalization of assets, then 2025 In that year, you achieved everything you wanted. Moreover, you even witnessed a historical high, although you didn't manage to hit a new all-time high on the last day of the year.

Predicting short-term prices is meaningless; the industry is moving in the right direction.

Danny:What you mentioned are all fundamental factors that are positive for Bitcoin. I completely agree. However, the current price is lower compared to last year. I don't know if this is a self-fulfilling prophecy—because people believe the four-year cycle is real, they sell Bitcoin. I think the four-year cycle has already ended.Do you think that... 2026 What will happen in the coming year?

Saylor:I think trying to predict the market's direction within 100 days is a futile effort. As I just mentioned, Bitcoin hit a new high 95 days ago, yet you're complaining about its price volatility. Focusing too much on short-term events is wrong; the core idea of Bitcoin is that you should have a lower time preference.

Looking back at the history of all ideological movements over the past 10,000 years, people who are seen as committed to achieving something usually require a decade of effort. By the way, there are many people around the world who have spent ten years doing something, yet still failed, and then spent another ten or even twenty years before finally succeeding. If your goal is to commercialize Bitcoin, you shouldn't evaluate or assess your success based on a timeline of 10 weeks or even 10 months. What is the point of analyzing the price trends in 2026?

If you use a four-year moving average to evaluate Bitcoin's performance, you will find that it shows a rather bullish trend. I think... 2026 2024 will be a significant year for Bitcoin, but you shouldn't try to predict it. 90 Goddess or 180 The price of the queen.This industry is moving in the right direction. The network is also heading in the right direction, and the past 90 days have simply been an opportunity for those with sharp eyes to buy more Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the universal capital of the digital age, and treasury companies are far from saturated.

Danny:I'm also very optimistic about Bitcoin's development by 2026. What surprised me in 2025 was the emergence of so many treasury management companies. How do you view companies that still follow the simple strategy of "sell stocks, buy Bitcoin"?

Saylor:Everyone around the world can hold Bitcoin as part of their investment, but not everyone can own as much Bitcoin as I do. However, I will not question anyone for buying Bitcoin.Every household and every company can buy Bitcoin. For struggling companies, holding Bitcoin might improve their balance sheets; for profitable companies, it can further amplify their returns.Suppose a company has an annual operating loss of $10 million, holds $100 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and has realized $30 million in capital gains on its balance sheet. The question now is, what exactly are you going to criticize about this company?

Criticizing a company for buying Bitcoin is missing the point.The criticism is not about buying Bitcoin, but the fact that they have been incurring losses.Why not focus the energy of criticism on companies that are losing money and do not hold Bitcoin?

Danny:I don't mean to criticize any company; I'm just wondering if the market can accommodate over 200 companies buying Bitcoin.

Saylor:I don't understand why you would say that. It's like saying I doubt the market can accommodate 200 people buying Bitcoin. There are 400 million companies in the world, yet you think only 10 can buy Bitcoin. Why can't all 400 million companies buy Bitcoin? Do they not do anything else? I think it's kind of silly for you to criticize a company for making a rational decision. What do you want them to buy instead of Bitcoin? What alternative do you want to promote instead of Bitcoin?Holding Bitcoin is like a factory holding an electricity infrastructure—it is a productivity tool, not merely a speculative asset. Electricity is general capital that powers any machine; Bitcoin is the general capital of the digital age.

Danny:What worries me is that some companies might see this as an opportunity to make money, rather than genuinely wanting to develop something interesting.

Saylor:This is also my general frustration with the Bitcoin community: they would rather turn on each other and criticize those who buy or support Bitcoin in different ways. They spend so much time criticizing other Bitcoin holders and Bitcoin companies, but the fact is, 99% of people who like Bitcoin actually agree with you, and only 1% disagree.

So, instead of criticizing companies that act rationally, we should reflect on ourselves. The question isn't whether companies should buy Bitcoin, or how many companies can buy it, or how large the market space is. What I'm more concerned about is how much scale the current market can tolerate for these purely financial companies, especially when the question itself is offensive. Here's the problem: you define them as purely financial companies, but they are not. Danny, what offends me is that you use this definition to describe who I am now and who I will always be in the future. Your position is genuinely offensive. Alright, let me rephrase. How many companies are there on Earth? 400 million. How much space is there on Earth to accommodate companies? 400 million. So why worry about 200 of them?

Danny:Okay, let's skip this topic because I really don't mean to offend. Now, the mNAV of many companies is below 1, and obviously, Strategy also experienced a similar downturn in 2022. Do you think they can easily achieve a positive price-to-book ratio again, or will they continue to face certain challenges?

Saylor:I think this is just a short-sighted statement,The purpose of a company's existence is to create value, so the value of a company should be based on its operations.If I have a company in Japan where I can issue credit instruments with a 6% yield, while other credit markets only offer a 2% yield, then how much is this company worth? Isn't it the most valuable company in Japan? My point is, regardless of what a company does, its value depends on its own intrinsic value. The key is what it actually does. We have chosen to create digital credit.

Do you know how much growth potential digital credit has? Do you know how many companies issue preferred credit? Do you know how many companies issue corporate credit? Do you think we will saturate the market? Absolutely not. If you create a derivatives business backed by Bitcoin, theoretically, you can do much better than traditional derivatives businesses. If you create an exchange backed by Bitcoin, you can outperform regular exchanges. You can also create an insurance company. How many insurance companies on Earth use Bitcoin as collateral or capital? None. This industry is huge.

There is another important legal point to mention.If you have an operating company, the value of your equity depends not only on what you are currently doing with your capital, but also on what you might potentially do. Just because I haven't done something doesn't mean I'm incapable of doing it.

Strategy It is digital credit, using USD reserves to enhance corporate credibility.

Danny:You just said that you would never be interested in becoming a bank, or perhaps you might not be interested. A lot of people are speculating about your strategic direction. Why not?

Saylor:Because, in theory, our business can scale almost infinitely. We have a product called the STRC Deferred Digital Credit Line. What would be a perfect product? A publicly traded one with a 10% dividend yield and a V-score of 1 or 2. If we can capture 10% of the sovereign debt credit market, that would be $10 trillion. So the total potential market size for my product is $10 trillion. Who wants it? Everyone wants it. Who doesn't want a bank account that pays your bills? What if it drops to zero?

We think our business concept is very simple.Bitcoin is digital capital,Strategy It is digital credit.In addition, the reason for not doing banking is to avoid distractions; we want to create the best digital credit product in the world. If you truly have a vision to transform the global monetary system, banking system, and credit markets, then you must not get distracted. At the same time, competing with your customers is the most foolish thing to do.

Danny:Are you starting to stockpile U.S. dollars and Bitcoin to become a liquidity pool for digital currencies, or to eliminate some concerns caused by interest payments when investing in preferred stocks?

SaylorThe reason for building up dollar reserves is to enhance the company's credibility.as well as their image in the eyes of credit investors. People purchase credit because they believe that Bitcoin and stocks are too volatile.

If you're a stock investor, you want more Bitcoin and higher volatility. But if you're a credit investor, what you want is the asset with the highest credibility. So, if you want to become the biggest player in the digital credit space, how can you enhance your company's credibility? Holding dollar reserves can boost credibility and make your products more attractive.