Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, defended the company's recent Bitcoin sale, saying the ability to sell the asset is necessary to continue issuing “digital credit.”
Strategy disclosed its first reported Bitcoin sale since 2022 in a June 1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, offloading 32 $BTC in a move that appeared at odds with Saylor's long-running “never sell your Bitcoin” mantra.
In an interview with Cointelegraph at the $BTC Prague conference, Saylor said that Bitcoin treasury companies must retain the ability to sell holdings when necessary to support dividend-paying securities and other Bitcoin-backed credit products.
If the company's policy is that we won't sell the Bitcoin, then the credit won't have value and the equity won't have value, he said, adding:
The company is in the business of selling digital credit. The credit is backed by capital. Bitcoin is capital.
Cointelegraphs Ciaran Lyons (left) and Strategy founder Michael Saylor (right) at $BTC Prague. Source: Cointelegraph
Saylor described products like Strategy's STRC preferred stock as “digital credit” instruments that use the company's Bitcoin balance sheet to support credit obligations. For Strategy, such securities have become a primary vehicle for raising capital to acquire more Bitcoin.
Digital credit is a “trillion-dollar” opportunity for Bitcoin finance, Saylor says
Digital credit markets are emerging as the next “trillion-dollar opportunity” in finance, a development that Saylor said could enable yield-bearing digital money products.
“I see Bitcoin as the digital transformation of capital. I see STRC as the digital transformation of credit,” Saylor said, explaining that digital credit products can offer yields of up to 8%, which is three to four times more than traditional savings accounts.
Saylor said digital credit products could transform how people see credit markets, while also bringing billions of dollars into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
He cited projects such as Saturn and Apyx as examples of yield-bearing products built on top of digital credit markets. One of those products recently faced a test of its resilience.
On June 4, Apyx Finance's dividend-backed synthetic stablecoin (apxUSD) depegged to as low as $0.90 as Bitcoin traded below $63,000 and STRC shares fell below their $100 par value.
According to Apyx, the decline in STRC, the stablecoin's primary collateral asset, reduced the protocol's reserve value. The company also cited falling Bitcoin prices, thinning liquidity and derivative-driven market dynamics as factors behind the depeg.
At press time, apxUSD traded at $0.96, below its $1 peg. Source: Coingecko
The full interview with Saylor will be available on Cointelegraph's YouTube channel in the coming days.