The chief executive of Strategy, the world’s biggest corporate Bitcoin holder, urged cryptocurrency investors to avoid getting caught up by news about volatility in the asset class.
“There's volatility in the market, there's sound and fury, there's scepticism, but there's scepticism about electricity, automobiles and airplanes,” Michael Saylor said at Binance Blockchain Week 2025 in Dubai on Wednesday.
“There's always going to be scepticism of the new, but I wouldn't get caught up, I wouldn't be afraid, or I wouldn't be cowed down by the volatility.
“The volatility means this is the most powerful, vibrant, useful thing in the entire capital market. That's why it's volatile. Don't run away from the fire, run towards the fire.”
Cryptocurrencies have borne the brunt of a sell-off in speculative assets, in a sharp reversal for a sector that had been buoyed by President Donald Trump’s pledge last year to turn the US into a “Bitcoin superpower”.
Increased cautiousness over riskier assets, spurred by the spectre of an AI bubble amid lofty tech valuations and overall economic uncertainty, has weighed on the asset class in recent weeks.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, traded at $92,840.87 at 1.13pm on Wednesday and is down more than 30 per cent from a peak above $126,000 set in early October. Ether and other major tokens also edged higher.
The digital assets market remains on shaky ground after a sell-off that began in early October. Since then, more than $1 trillion in crypto market value has been wiped out.
Strategy – the software company that pioneered the Bitcoin treasury model and holds 650,000 Bitcoin, equivalent to 3.1 per cent of the world’s total supply of the cryptocurrency – has fallen 37 per cent this year as investors cool on the company’s issuance of shares, convertible debt and new preferred equity.
It operates as a digital asset treasury, stockpiling cryptocurrencies in a bid to capitalise on spikes and enable more cautious investors to gain exposure to the riskier assets.
This week, Strategy said it raised $1.44 billion in US dollar reserves through a stock sale to help ensure it can meet future dividend and debt-interest payments. The company said it also bought 130 Bitcoin in the past two weeks, bringing its total holding to 650,000 acquired over the past five years, worth about $56 billion based on current prices.
“This US dollar reserve gives us 21 months of dividends. We did that so we could pay dividends without selling equity, BTC derivatives or BTC if no capital markets were open to us. If the market is irrational or closed for 21 months, we can just pay out of this reserve,” Mr Saylor said.
“The company's strategy is when our equity is trading above the net asset value of Bitcoin, we sell the equity as it creates shareholder value. When the equity's trading below the value of Bitcoin, we would either sell Bitcoin derivatives or just sell Bitcoin.”
Strategy holds about $60 billion of BTC reserves against $8 billion in debt, “a fairly low leverage ratio”, according to Mr Saylor.
The Bitcoin-accumulation company has about 73 years’ worth of dividends and pays out $800 million a year. “For us to pay that money forever and grow shareholder value, Bitcoin would have to appreciate 1.36 per cent a year. If it does, we win,” he said.
Mr Saylor said while money markets return about 3 per cent a year, if companies were to capitalise on Bitcoin, it would return 47 per cent a year.
“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if the cost of capital or the hurdle rate [the S&P index] is 14 per cent, then any company capitalised on money markets is destroying shareholder value. But any company capitalised on Bitcoin is increasing or creating shareholder value,” he said.
“We are going to see digital credit spread into every single market, and it's going to fix the banking system and the money market system. The winner is the investor, the digital economy, the Bitcoin holder and the Bitcoin community. The loser is any bureaucratic, antiquated oligopoly that wants to keep your money and pay you nothing.”
Strategy, which was recently upgraded by the S&P to a ‘B-’ rating, aspires to be the first investment-grade Bitcoin holder and the first crypto company that can issue investment-grade debt, he said.
Mr Saylor told the audience of crypto enthusiasts that “the most exciting development of the past year” was the worldwide adoption of digital capital, starting with the embrace of Bitcoin by the global financial community. He cited how Mr Trump declared he wants to make America the “crypto capital of the world” and his appointments of advocates in both the cabinet and regulators.
From being hostile towards cryptos, the global banking industry has seen a sea change in their stance in the past 12 months.
“I couldn't get a loan against Bitcoin from any major bank, and now, if I counted the top 10 US banks, eight of them are engaged in crypto lending, and they've all flipped their stance in the last six months. So, this is a major change,” Mr Saylor said.
Highlighting how Wall Street has embraced using Bitcoin as both collateral and capital, he said while Strategy was the first publicly traded company with a substantial holding of crypto assets, now there are more than 60 such firms. Also, after the approval of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in January this year, now there are 85 such funds worldwide, he added.
