Michael Saylor on Bitcoin’s Fundamental Breakthrough and Strategy’s Digital Credit Vision

Source: What Bitcoin Did

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

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

During the interview, Saylor highlighted that Bitcoin’s true victory lies not in short-term price movements, but in historic breakthroughs in fundamentals—from restored insurance coverage and adoption of fair value accounting to full acceptance by the banking credit system. He also shared MicroStrategy’s grand vision of building “digital credit” and responded to external doubts about the company. Here are the key takeaways.

Fundamentals See Multiple Breakthroughs, Institutional Adoption Is the Biggest Progress

Danny: Bitcoin is now 17 years old. Last year was somewhat disappointing for Bitcoin, not what I expected, especially for companies issuing Bitcoin products. The second half was really tough. Did you anticipate 2025 would be this way?

Saylor: I don’t think it was a disappointing year. The only disappointment was the year-end price. Actually, in the first week of the final quarter (October), Bitcoin hit an all-time high. The entire community has short memory spans, mainly discussing what happened in the past five days. In 2024, approximately 30 to 60 companies held Bitcoin on their balance sheets, and by the end of 2025, that number reached around 200 companies. So in my view, the fundamentals look quite solid. Bitcoin hit new highs, with 100 new companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.

If you enumerate everything that happened in 2025, you’ll find we’ve reached historic highs.

First, 2025 restored insurance coverage. When we purchased Bitcoin in 2020, insurance companies terminated our coverage. We lost insurance protection. For four straight years, I had to insure the company personally. The company once held $20, 30, or 40 billion in assets but couldn’t afford a $40 million policy. If I hadn’t insured the company with my personal assets, this strategy wouldn’t exist today.

Second, 2025 restored profitability. We adopted fair value accounting methods, and now the company can finally make money. We faced corporate alternative minimum tax issues. Do publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin need to pay unrealized capital gains tax? This question received positive government guidance in 2025 and was resolved. So we weren’t hit by unrealized capital gains tax.

Then, Bitcoin was officially recognized by the government in 2025 as a major and largest global digital commodity. Subsequently, Bitcoin hit all-time highs. In early 2025, you couldn’t borrow five cents using a billion dollars of Bitcoin as collateral. But by year-end, most major U.S. banks began extending credit backed by IBIT, with about a quarter of banks announcing plans to begin lending backed by BTC. By early 2026, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were discussing buying, selling, and handling Bitcoin.

The Treasury Department also provided positive guidance on crypto assets being included on bank balance sheets. Both the CFTC and SEC chairs support Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Additionally, we witnessed commercialization of CME Bitcoin derivatives markets. You also saw physical creation and redemption mechanisms where you can exchange $1 million worth of Bitcoin for $1 million in IBIT, and vice versa, with $1 million in IBIT exchangeable for $1 million in Bitcoin without paying taxes.

So if I list all the fundamental elements needed for asset commercialization, globalization, and institutionalization, then in 2025, everything you wanted was realized. Plus, you even witnessed all-time highs, just not on the last day of the year.

Predicting Short-Term Prices Is Futile; The Industry Is Moving in the Right Direction

Danny: From a fundamental perspective, everything you mentioned is bullish for Bitcoin. I completely agree. But the current price is lower year-over-year. I don’t know if this is a self-fulfilling prophecy because people believe in the four-year cycle, so they sell Bitcoin. I think the four-year cycle has ended. What do you think will happen in 2026?

Saylor: I think trying to predict market movements within 100 days is futile. As I just said, Bitcoin hit all-time highs 95 days ago, yet you’re complaining about Bitcoin’s price fluctuations. Being obsessed with short-term events is wrong. Bitcoin’s core philosophy is that you should have low time preference.

Looking back at the history of all ideological movements over the past 10,000 years, people dedicated to doing something needed ten years. By the way, many people in the world spent ten years doing something but still didn’t succeed, then spent another ten or twenty years before finally succeeding. If your goal is to commercialize Bitcoin, you shouldn’t analyze or assess your success at frequencies of 10 weeks or even 10 months. What’s the point of evaluating Bitcoin’s price trends for 2026?

If you assess Bitcoin’s performance using a four-year moving average, you’ll find it shows quite a bullish trend. I think 2026 will be a significant year for Bitcoin, but you shouldn’t try to predict prices 90 or 180 days out. This industry is moving in the right direction. This network is also moving in the right direction, and for those with sharp eyes, the past 90 days represent an opportunity to buy more Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Is Universal Capital for the Digital Age; Treasury Companies Are Far From Saturated

Danny: I’m also very bullish about Bitcoin’s development in 2026. What surprised me about 2025 is the emergence of so many treasury companies. How do you view those companies still using the simple strategy of “sell stock, buy Bitcoin”?

Saylor: Everyone in the world can hold Bitcoin as part of their investment, but not everyone can own as much Bitcoin as I do. But I won’t doubt anyone buying Bitcoin. Every household and every company can buy Bitcoin. Unprofitable companies may improve their balance sheets by holding Bitcoin; profitable companies can amplify returns. Suppose a company operates at a $10 million annual loss, holds $100 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and achieves $30 million in capital gains on that balance sheet. Then the question becomes: what exactly would you criticize about this company?

Criticizing a company for buying Bitcoin is missing the point. The criticism shouldn’t be about buying Bitcoin, but that they’ve been unprofitable. Why not focus your criticism on unprofitable companies that don’t hold Bitcoin?

Danny: I’m not criticizing any company; I just doubt whether the market can accommodate 200-plus companies buying Bitcoin.

Saylor: I don’t understand why you’d 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? Don’t they do other things? I think you’re trying to criticize a company making a rational decision, which seems foolish. What do you want them to buy instead of Bitcoin? What alternative would you promote? Companies holding Bitcoin is like factories holding power infrastructure—it’s a productivity tool, not mere speculation. Electricity is universal capital that drives any machine; Bitcoin is universal capital for the digital age.

Danny: I’m worried that some companies might see this as a money grab rather than genuinely wanting to develop something interesting.

Saylor: That’s my general frustration with the Bitcoin community: they’d rather cannibalize themselves, criticizing people who buy or support Bitcoin differently than they do. So much time spent criticizing other Bitcoin holders and Bitcoin companies, yet the reality is that 99% of Bitcoin enthusiasts agree with you, with only 1% disagreeing.

So instead of criticizing rational companies, reflect on yourself. The question isn’t how many companies can buy Bitcoin—the question is market size. What I’d rather ask is: how much of this market can currently handle companies purely focused on finance, especially when the question itself is offensive? That’s the issue: you define them as purely financial companies, but they’re not. Danny, what offends me is that you use this characterization to define what I am now and what I will always be. Your stance really offended me. Okay, let me rephrase: how many companies are on Earth? 400 million. How much space is there for companies on Earth? 400 million. So why worry about 200?

MicroStrategy Is Digital Credit, Building Company Credibility Through Dollar Reserves

Danny: The market’s mNAV is now below 1 for many companies. Obviously, MicroStrategy experienced similar downturns in 2022. Do you think they can easily achieve positive price-to-book ratios again? Or will they continuously face headwinds?

Saylor: I think that’s shortsighted. Companies exist to create value, so their worth should be based on operations. If I have a company in Japan offering credit instruments yielding 6%, while other credit markets yield only 2%, what’s this company worth? Isn’t it Japan’s most valuable company? So my point is that regardless of what companies do, their value depends on their own fundamentals. The key is what they’ll do. We chose to create digital credit.

Do you know how vast the digital credit market is? Do you know how many companies issue preferred credit? How many issue corporate credit? Do you think we’ll saturate the market? Absolutely not. If you create a Bitcoin-backed derivatives business, theoretically it could be far superior to traditional derivatives. If you create a Bitcoin-backed exchange, it could be better than ordinary exchanges. You could also create an insurance company. How many insurance companies on Earth use Bitcoin as collateral or capital? Not one. This industry is massive.

There’s also an important legal point to note. For an operating company, your equity value depends not just on what you’re currently doing with your capital, but on what you might do. Not having done something doesn’t mean I can’t do it.

Strategy is digital credit, improving company credibility through dollar reserves

Danny: You mentioned earlier you’d never be interested in becoming a bank, or might not be. Many speculate about your strategic direction. Why not?

Saylor: Because our business can theoretically scale almost infinitely. We have a product: STRC deferred digital credit line. What’s the perfect product? A publicly traded product with 10% dividend yield and 1 or 2x price-to-book ratio. If we capture 10% of the Treasury credit market, that’s $10 trillion. So our product’s total addressable market is $10 trillion. Who wants it? Everyone. Who wants a bank account that pays bills? What if it goes to zero?

We think our business model is simple. Bitcoin is digital capital; MicroStrategy is digital credit. Besides, the reason not to become a bank is to avoid distraction. We want to create the world’s best digital credit product. If you truly envision transforming the global monetary system, banking system, and credit markets, don’t get distracted. Meanwhile, competing with your customers is the stupidest thing.

Danny: You’re accumulating both dollars and Bitcoin. Is this to become a liquidity pool for digital currency, or to address some concerns about interest payments when investors buy preferred stock?

Saylor: We build dollar reserves to enhance company credibility and image in credit investors’ eyes. People buy credit because they think Bitcoin and stock volatility are too high.

If you’re a stock investor, you want more Bitcoin, higher volatility. But if you’re a credit investor, you want the highest-credibility assets. So if you want to become the biggest player in digital credit, how do you enhance company credibility? Holding dollar reserves boosts credit quality and makes the product more attractive.

Related Reading: Will Bitcoin Dropping to $80,000 Break MicroStrategy’s Model?