Author | Coinage
Compiled by | WuBlockchain
Market Reaction and Long-Term Logic: The Short Term is a Voting Machine, the Long Term is a Weighing Machine
Zack Guzman: This move of selling 32 bitcoins has attracted global attention. Faced with various market reactions, what is the one point you most want to clarify?
Phong Le: There's an old saying on Wall Street: 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' We are not seeking a vote on 'how we increase Bitcoin per share,' we are just transparently providing KPIs and a long-term perspective. There will always be short-term overreactions, but I won't spend too much time scrolling through every comment on X (Twitter). We make decisions considering daily, annual, and long-term lenses, and the long-term lens is the most important.
We focus on whether we are continuously creating value for different classes of shareholders, such as common shareholders, preferred shareholders, debt holders, while also advancing the Bitcoin ecosystem itself. This isn't even our first time selling Bitcoin; we sold about $2.5 million worth in 2022 and bought it back later. This time we also sold 32 bitcoins (about $2.5 million), we bought about $100 million the previous week, and about $1.5 billion the week before that. We voluntarily disclose this information every week through 8-K filings. As the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, bearing the positive and negative feedback of the market is the responsibility that comes with our transparency.
Proving Liquidity to the Market: Dispelling the 'Death Spiral' Narrative
Zack Guzman: Some view this sale as 'vaccinating' the market. Others compare you to Terra, worrying that STRC (Strategy Preferred Stock, the preferred equity product Stretch) could be leveraged by other DeFi protocols, potentially triggering a cascading 'death spiral' sell-off. Were these concerns you heard before selling?
Phong Le: That was not a driving factor at all. We are not worried that DeFi protocols built on STRC will trigger a cascade collapse because roughly 80% of STRC is held by retail, a significant portion by long-term institutional holders, and a very small proportion, less than 10%, is held by DeFi protocols.
When we say 'vaccinating the market,' it has two main meanings:
First, our debt holders (digital credit and bond holders) wanted to confirm that, given nearly 100% of our assets are Bitcoin, we have the ability and willingness to use those assets if we truly need to pay dividends or for other purposes. At the same time, rating agencies want to see that we won't sell Bitcoin indiscriminately. So, we made a small sale to prove to creditors that we can sell, and to prove to rating agencies that we have discipline.
Second, to test internal business processes. We disclosed custodian information publicly but not the specific Bitcoin addresses. Once we move Bitcoin from cold storage to a hot wallet, countless people in the market will be watching, trying to guess which wallets are ours. We wanted to see how the entire sale process operates in a real environment and the market's reaction. We hope that in the future, the market won't make a big fuss when we sell a few million dollars worth of Bitcoin.
Farewell to the Black Box: Michael Saylor and Strategy's Decision-Making Mechanism
Zack Guzman: We've seen all sorts of experiments in the crypto space. Frankly, we've also reported on founders with highly concentrated power like SBF and Do Kwon. But Strategy is different. How does a decision like 'selling 32 bitcoins' actually get made internally?
Phong Le: As a well-known Nasdaq-listed public company, Michael Saylor no longer holds a majority stake. We have 8 board members, common shareholders, preferred shareholders, debt holders, and to some extent, a responsibility to the broader crypto community.
At a macro level, we discuss funding 'optionality' with the board every quarter during earnings calls — we can issue stock, preferred stock, convertible bonds, buy or sell Bitcoin, or repurchase bonds. After reaching consensus at this level, we move to the execution layer. At a micro level, we run extremely complex financial models every month, analyzing the impact of different operations on equity quality and credit quality. Weekly, Michael and I discuss the week's goals. Every morning, we meet with the treasury team, investor relations, and traders to set the day's instructions. We even use sentiment analysis from Grok on X, website traffic, and Strategy App usage data to inform decisions. This is by no means a spur-of-the-moment decision; it's the rigorous approach a data analytics company should have.
Funding Mechanisms and the Highest-Level Philosophy: 'Doing Nothing'
Zack Guzman: Besides Bitcoin, if STRC continues to trade below par, what other funding mechanisms will you employ in the future?
Phong Le: We have many options: issuing more stock (our stock trades over $2.7 billion daily, one of the most liquid globally), issuing other preferred stock, or issuing more convertible debt — the market remains very open to us. But I want to emphasize one point: we currently hold 845,000 bitcoins. We can absolutely choose the option of 'doing nothing.' That was our core strategy during the 2022 bear market: we paid down some senior secured notes and Bitcoin-backed debt, and then simply sat on this massive Bitcoin treasury. As Bitcoin recovered, the company's valuation and Bitcoin per share naturally rose.
In a bear market, the most dangerous temptation is often the urge to 'do something,' like a massive panic sell, but we will never do that. 'Doing nothing' is an incredibly important strategic option for us.
Facing Volatility and Conviction: Great Companies Have All Had 'Near-Death Experiences'
Zack Guzman: When you choose to 'do nothing,' watching paper losses accumulate to billions of dollars, what is that experience like personally?
Phong Le: People sometimes forget that this company, formerly named MicroStrategy, was founded by Michael Saylor in 1989, went public in 1998, and we only added Bitcoin to the balance sheet in 2020. From 1989 to 2020, for 31 years, our Executive Chairman has had the rich experience of leading the company through countless ups and downs, which is the foundation of the company's resilience and strength. I've been here since 2015 as CFO, taking over as CEO in 2022, and have also weathered 11 years of storms. Michael's hair has turned a lot grayer; mine has too.
Look at Amazon — without experiencing a few near-death experiences and intense volatility, it wouldn't be the Amazon of today. Tesla had the 'funding secured' tweet saga. 2022 was indeed a difficult period, but it forged resilience for those who persevered. Why am I unwavering? Because I believe in the underlying logic. I believe Bitcoin can create sovereignty and freedom for people globally, that it's a better way to move money on a digital rail, and a programmatically superior scarce asset. Just like Jeff Bezos firmly believed Amazon could create real value for hundreds of millions of consumers, as long as you believe in the underlying logic, all other volatility will work itself out.
The Evolution of AI: From Creating STRC to Mars Trading with 6 Trillion Agents
Zack Guzman: Rumors say the inspiration for the STRC product came from exploring internal AI tools. What other long-term plans do you have for combining AI and finance?
Phong Le: Yes. When generative AI first appeared, everyone thought it was only good for writing meeting minutes. But we discovered it could help us design revolutionary products that would have taken months or been outright rejected by lawyers and banks. AI helped us find applicable case law and financial KPIs, shortening STRC's development cycle from three years to eight months.
But that's just the beginning. What's more exciting is Agentic AI. Internally, we are deploying agents to automatically summarize information, fix code (self-healing code), etc. Ultimately, the world will evolve from 8 billion humans to 6 trillion autonomous decision-making agents. Imagine SpaceX deploys a million humanoid robots on Mars and the Moon. When they engage in commercial interactions and value exchange, they absolutely won't use traditional financial networks like Visa, Mastercard, or SWIFT. They will use decentralized crypto rails and seek high-yield products with Bitcoin as the underlying store of value. This is an immeasurably huge positive for the crypto world and Bitcoin.
Bridging the Divide: Crypto Fundamentalism vs. Capital Markets
Zack Guzman: There's always been a sense of division in the crypto world: one camp of 'fundamentalists' who only believe in Bitcoin, and another who deeply understand the necessity of connecting to traditional capital markets. How does Strategy balance these two?
Phong Le: When I engaged deeply with Bitcoin, I wanted to evangelize it to everyone around me. But I never ask them to pass an IQ test or a loyalty test. I don't ask about their religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or professional background. If Bitcoin is to win the world, it must be accessible to as many people as possible in every possible way. Whether through self-custody with a hard wallet, buying on Coinbase, holding Strategy stock, holding STRC, going through DeFi protocols, or ETFs — these are all great ways to spread Bitcoin. Our philosophy is: 'Spread Bitcoin with love.'
Can STRC Return to its $100 Par Value?
Zack Guzman: Will STRC compete with USDC/USDT for the stablecoin market? What is your roadmap for it returning to its $100 par value?
Phong Le: STRC is only 10 months old, while Bitcoin is 18. It's still in its infancy; we are still learning and perfecting it. Our goal is for it to trade between $99 and $101. Recently, we used our dollar reserves to repurchase $1.5 billion in convertible bonds, which reduced reserves and temporarily put pressure on the STRC price. Next, we will replenish reserves, and coupled with the first semi-monthly dividend payment mechanism starting June 30th, it will gradually return to par value. The product is extremely over-collateralized; paying dividends is not a problem at all and won't keep me up at night.
Polymarket Controversy Settled
Zack Guzman: There was major controversy on Polymarket about whether you 'sold Bitcoin before May 31st.' Did you really sell?
Phong Le: I followed the whole process. I can state clearly: we did sell Bitcoin in the week before May 31st and truthfully recorded it in the 8-K filing released at 8 AM on the following Monday. As for how the prediction market interprets the contract, that's their business, but I know very clearly what the company actually did internally.
