Michael Saylor took his case for bitcoin into the World Bank's headquarters in Washington on Tuesday, Oct. 132. Saylor, the founder and executive chairman of Strategy, sat for a 25-minute fireside chat at DC Fintech Week1. Chris Brummer, chief executive of The Fintech Foundation, asked the questions. In an Oct. 13 interview with Bloomberg, Saylor said bitcoin stood at the "beginning of a bull market," TokenPost reported3. His pitch leaned on credit as much as on bitcoin. Strategy held 848,250 bitcoin on Oct. 114. From Oct. 5 to Oct. 11, Strategy spent $192.4 million buying back its own preferred stock, which it calls Digital Credit, and $21.5 million on bitcoin.
Saylor's 25 Minutes at the World Bank
DC Fintech Week opened on Oct. 13 at the World Bank's headquarters, 1818 H St NW11. The World Bank presented the day. Saylor's slot ran from 9:35 to 10:00 a.m. Eastern time2. Terry Duffy, chief executive of CME, gave the opening keynote right before Saylor.
The Fintech Foundation's program billed the chat in large terms. “Since 2020, Strategy has made one of the most consequential bets in corporate finance on bitcoin as long-term digital capital,” its agenda reads2.
Saylor posted a video of the session on X at 14:54 UTC on Oct. 131. He listed ten chapters under it. One reads "Strategy as a private central bank for the crypto economy". Another reads "Bitcoin-backed bank credit and the impact of $10B in new lending". So Saylor's own outline casts Strategy as a private central bank, for a talk given inside the World Bank. By 11:40 UTC on Oct. 14, the post had 3,835 likes and 286 replies, X's public data showed.
Both sides, in their own words
Will Strategy's Digital Credit find the stable demand Saylor's plan calls for?
“In the midst of this phase of muted bitcoin sentiment and market skepticism, we continue to evolve our business model and establish Digital Credit as a new asset class”
“Saylor's incentives are not the same as a retail investor. Unfortunately, it's the retail investors, sold STRC as a retirement income product and MSTR as amplified bitcoin, that have paid the price”
Why Saylor Pitches Credit to a Policy Crowd
So why bring a bitcoin pitch to the World Bank? In the second quarter, Strategy raised most of its new money by selling credit. STRC sales brought in $5.47 billion of the $8.41 billion in gross proceeds from Strategy's at-the-market offerings5. An at-the-market offering sells new shares into the open market over time, at market prices.
Strategy calls its preferred stock Digital Credit6. A perpetual preferred share pays a set dividend and stays outstanding until the issuer buys it back or redeems it. Strategy lists four in the US: STRF, STRC, STRK and STRD. STRC has the most shares by far. On Sept. 15, 94,558,175 STRC shares were outstanding, each with a $100 stated amount5. That comes to about $9.46 billion. STRC's dividend rate rose to 12.00% a year in July 2026.
Regulators and a central banker shared the program with Saylor. The day's speakers included Mihnea Constantinescu, deputy governor of the National Bank of Moldova2. João Accioly, a director at Brazil's Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, sat on the panel after Saylor's. Two economists from the Bank for International Settlements moderated panels. Paolo Ardoino, Tether's chief executive, spoke that afternoon.
Saylor has pitched governments before. At Bitcoin MENA in Abu Dhabi, he urged nation-states to build bitcoin-backed digital banking systems, Cointelegraph's Nate Kostar reported on Dec. 8, 20259. A country that adopted the model, Saylor argued, could become "the digital banking capital of the world".
His own case for Digital Credit came with Strategy's second-quarter results on July 30. “In the midst of this phase of muted bitcoin sentiment and market skepticism, we continue to evolve our business model and establish Digital Credit as a new asset class,” Saylor said5. “Our plan is to return STRC to health with stable demand, high liquidity, and low volatility trading near par.” Note the verb "return." It implies STRC had fallen short of that goal.
What Strategy Owns and Owes
How did Strategy spend its cash the week before the chat? Strategy bought 250 bitcoin from Oct. 5 to Oct. 114. The 848,250 coins it then held cost $64.00 billion, or $75,444 each, fees included.
Bitcoin traded at $83,262 at 13:35 UTC on Oct. 13, as Saylor's session began, by CoinGecko's data10. At that price, the coins were worth about $70.6 billion, by The CryptoLately.com Desk's arithmetic.
The STRC buyback from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11 covered 1,932,145 shares4. At $192.4 million, that works out to about $99.58 a share by the same arithmetic, just under the $100 stated amount. The $21.5 million bitcoin purchase came to about a ninth of that sum.
Strategy spent $192.4 million on STRC buybacks, $21.5 million on bitcoin, Oct. 5-11, 2026
Strategy's cash spent by use, in millions of US dollars; STRC is one of its preferred stocks
- STRC preferred shares bought back: $192.4 million
- Bitcoin bought: $21.5 million
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| STRC shares bought back | $192.4 million |
| Bitcoin bought | $21.5 million |
Phong Le, Strategy's president and chief executive, set out the buyback policy in July. “These repurchases are an attractive use of capital that reduces our future preferred dividend requirements at a discount while allowing independent market demand to establish a healthy and sustainable market,” Le said5.
Each preferred share carries a dividend bill. Strategy recorded $400.7 million of preferred dividends in the second quarter of 20265. In the second quarter of 2025, the figure was $49.1 million. That is about eight times as much.
Strategy's preferred dividends rose about eightfold, to $400.7 million in Q2 2026
Dividends on Strategy's preferred stock in each April to June quarter, in millions of US dollars
- Second quarter of 2026: $400.7 million
- Second quarter of 2025: $49.1 million
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Apr. to June 2025 | $49.1 million |
| Apr. to June 2026 | $400.7 million |
Strategy keeps a USD Reserve to pay those dividends and the interest on its debt4. Andrew Kang, the chief financial officer, measured it in years in July. “Strategy's USD Reserve currently stands at $3.75 billion, which is enough to cover our existing preferred dividend payments and interest obligations for more than 2.1 years,” Kang said5. By Oct. 11 the reserve held $4.88 billion.
As of July 26, Strategy had $6.71 billion of convertible notes outstanding, after a May repurchase5. Strategy sold about $218.4 million of bitcoin in 2026, through July 26, to fund part of its preferred dividends.
Strategy Inc was formerly known as MicroStrategy Incorporated6. Analytics software remains part of Strategy's business, its July release says5. Saylor dates its first bitcoin purchase to August 2020, TokenPost reported3.
The Case Against Saylor's Bull Call
Critics aim at the credit more than the price call. Alexander Blume is chief executive of Two Prime, a bitcoin-focused investment adviser7. In June, Blume told CoinDesk that Saylor's changes of plan had cost Strategy the trust of retail investors. “Saylor's incentives are not the same as a retail investor. Unfortunately, it's the retail investors, sold STRC as a retirement income product and MSTR as amplified bitcoin, that have paid the price,” Blume said.
STRC traded at $75 when CoinDesk published James Van Straten's report at 15:45 UTC on June 25, 20267. That sat 25% under its $100 par. Blume's verb is "sold." It describes how STRC reached retail buyers. Strategy's October buyback price, about $99.58 a share, puts STRC back near par4.
Shawn Tully, Fortune's senior editor-at-large, ran the numbers in June8. By June 2026, Strategy paid $1.5 billion a year in preferred dividends, by Tully's count. The yearly cost was $35 million when it relied on convertible bonds. “The ever mounting payments funded by still more issuance of preferred shares threaten a death spiral,” Tully wrote.
Josh Man, a former Salomon Brothers bond and derivatives trader, doubted that a higher rate can hold STRC's price. “Hiking rates on STRC to maintain/defend a peg or price level is not going to work when depositors want to get their money back out,” Man wrote in October 2025, Cointelegraph reported9.
Saylor answered the critics of Strategy's bitcoin sales in his Bloomberg interview, TokenPost reported3. He said investors should see Strategy as a structured finance company. Strategy must be able to move among equity, cash, credit and bitcoin when that helps shareholders, he said. He called the reaction to the first sale, of 32 bitcoin, outsized. Strategy's long-term forecast, he added, has bitcoin growing 20% to 30% a year for 20 years.
In July, Strategy put its "current effective cost of credit" at 10.8% a year5. Saylor's case needs bitcoin's yearly return to stay above that cost, and STRC buyers who keep paying near $100. The critics' case needs the dividend bill to outgrow the reserve and new stock sales. Then Strategy would have to sell more bitcoin.
By the numbers
- Strategy held 848,250 bitcoin on Oct. 11, 20264.
- Its average cost was $75,444 a coin, fees included4.
- STRC buybacks took $192.4 million from Oct. 5 to Oct. 114.
- Preferred dividends reached $400.7 million in the second quarter of 20265.
- USD Reserve funds stood at $4.88 billion on Oct. 114.
- Saylor controlled 32.9% of total votes on Sept. 156.
- Bitcoin sales of about $218.4 million funded part of 2026's preferred dividends through July 265.
What to watch
Strategy's shareholders vote on Oct. 28 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on daily dividends for STRF, STRC, STRK and STRD6. Saylor alone held 32.9% of the votes on Sept. 15, through Class B shares that carry ten votes each. You can follow the split in Strategy's updates, which list bitcoin bought next to STRC bought back, as the Oct. 12 release did4. Bitcoin buys above buybacks, with STRC near $100, would support Saylor; fresh bitcoin sales to pay dividends would support his critics5.
Sources
- Michael Saylor, "The future of Bitcoin is the future of finance.," X, Oct. 13, 2026, https://x.com/saylor/status/2110021321975308351
- The Fintech Foundation, "Opening Day at the World Bank HQ," DC Fintech Week, Oct. 13, 2026, https://2026.dcfintechweek.org/dcfw2026/world-bank-agenda
- Riza Dagoc, "Michael Saylor says bitcoin is at start of bull market, can reclaim $100,000," TokenPost, Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/31507
- Strategy Inc., "Strategy Acquires 250 BTC and Repurchases $192 Million of STRC," Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, Oct. 12, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1050446/000119312526419726/mstr-ex99_1.htm
- Strategy Inc., "Strategy Announces Second Quarter Financial Results; Currently Holds 843,775 Bitcoin; Now the Largest Institutional Holder Globally," Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, July 30, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1050446/000162828026051027/mstr-20260730x8kxex991.htm
- Strategy Inc., "Notice of 2026 Special Meeting of Stockholders," Schedule 14A, Oct. 5, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1050446/000119312526413159/d503578ddef14a.htm
- James Van Straten, "Strategy has a 10-month cash runway for dividends, but retail investors are losing faith," CoinDesk, June 25, 2026, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/25/michael-saylor-s-broken-promises-have-shattered-strategy-investor-trust-says-tw-prime-ceo
- Shawn Tully, "How Michael Saylor's preferred stock gamble could trigger a death spiral for Strategy," Fortune, June 9, 2026, https://fortune.com/2026/06/09/michael-saylor-strategy-math-problem-death-spiral-bitcoin-price/
- Nate Kostar, "Saylor pitches Bitcoin-backed banking system to nation-states," Cointelegraph, Dec. 8, 2025, https://cointelegraph.com/news/michael-saylor-countries-bitcoin-backed-digital-banks
- CoinGecko, "Bitcoin price in US dollars, 13:30 to 14:30 UTC, Oct. 13, 2026," read Oct. 14, 2026, https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/bitcoin/market_chart/range?vs_currency=usd&from=1791898200&to=1791901800
- The Fintech Foundation, "Week at a Glance," DC Fintech Week, Oct. 13, 2026, https://2026.dcfintechweek.org/dcfw2026/week-at-a-glance