Michael Saylor, who founded Strategy and now serves as its executive chairman, took the Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin 2026 on Tuesday to make the case that a preferred stock instrument launched just nine months ago has become the fastest-expanding credit product the world has ever seen — and that its growth trajectory is still in its early stages.
His keynote, centered on the concept he calls digital credit, was essentially a structured sales pitch for STRC — Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock. The instrument trades on Nasdaq close to its $100 par value and distributes an 11.5% annualized monthly dividend.
He began with a statement that laid the groundwork for everything that followed: “The world is built on capital. The world runs on credit.”
In Saylor’s view, Bitcoin serves as the capital layer. He refers to it as “ideal capital” — engineered, digital, portable, and historically outpacing every alternative. He pointed to Bitcoin’s approximately 38% annualized return over the past five years compared to gold, the S&P 500, and real estate, all of which he plainly called “awful” performers in comparison.
STRC, under his framework, is the credit layer constructed on top of that foundation: it removes Bitcoin’s volatility from the picture, channels the excess return to common equity holders, and provides what he called a “smooth ride” to investors seeking steady cash flows instead of direct price exposure.
One of the more pointed arguments in the talk was the comparison he drew between digital credit and traditional private credit. In his characterization, private credit is illiquid, opaque, discrete, and loaded with fees — structured primarily around issuer incentives. Digital credit, as he defines it, is liquid, transparent, homogeneous, scalable, accessible, and free of fees.
“We engineered a digital instrument that works in the investor’s favor,” he said, positioning STRC as a direct fix to the incentive misalignment he sees embedded in private markets.
He grounded this in a historical argument, noting that preferred capital had a precedent in 19th-century American railroads, where it made up 20 to 30% of institutional financing before falling out of widespread use. Saylor argued that Strategy has brought the model back in the 21st century — this time built on Bitcoin rather than railroad infrastructure.
STRC’s $8.5 Billion Lead
The data points he shared on the Nakamoto Stage were the backbone of the presentation. STRC accumulated roughly $8.5 billion in notional value in just nine months — a figure that on its own already exceeds the entire existing universe of monthly-paying preferred securities put together.
He cited annual growth for the program at around 350%, noted that April inflows alone, when projected on an annualized basis, correspond to $38 billion per year, and characterized the product as being in a state of “hypergrowth” with no obvious ceiling. He also said liquidity has expanded eightfold in five months.
“This is going viral,” he told the crowd.
Saylor on Why STRC Is Widely Accessible
In Saylor’s explanation, a major factor behind that momentum is how accessible the product is. STRC trades on Nasdaq and can be bought by any retail investor, whereas most comparable structured credit products are either locked inside private funds or restricted to institutional participants.
He noted that approximately 80% of STRC holders are retail investors, though corporate treasuries and institutions are starting to come on board as well. Strategy’s own data indicates STRC has funded the purchase of roughly 77,000 BTC year-to-date in 2026 — ten times the combined net inflows of all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs over the same timeframe.
The tax treatment was another key selling point. STRC dividends qualify for return-of-capital tax treatment, meaning investors can reinvest their cash distributions without paying ordinary income tax on the full amount, allowing returns to compound more efficiently over time.
Saylor wrapped up with an ambition that extends well beyond any single product. He said there is “an enormous appetite in the crypto economy for Bitcoin-backed yield” and that the real opportunity lies in 1,000 companies constructing their own digital monetary and yield instruments using the same underlying framework.
“Every dollar that flows into digital credit will end up flowing into digital capital,” he said. “It will end up in the Bitcoin network. And as it flows into the Bitcoin network, the price will go up.”
“We expect digital credit to drive the expansion of the bitcoin network… push bitcoin to $10 million per coin, turn bitcoin into a $20 trillion network before it climbs further, and offer people a real alternative to 20th century credit instruments,” Saylor said.
He framed the broader shift as “a massive, multi-generational transfer of wealth” and said his ultimate aim is for Strategy’s blueprint to “deliver a high-yield savings vehicle to hundreds of millions of households.”
