Saylor Cheers His Bitcoin Rival, Because Competition Is Just Another Stack 📈

MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said publicly on Wednesday that he wants smaller Bitcoin-buying rival Strive to thrive, framing the backing of a competitor as a way to expand the market for Bitcoin-powered financial products. Saylor made the case in a post on X, arguing that every additional issuer of "Digital Credit" helps validate the asset class as a whole.

Both companies follow the same core playbook, raising money and using it to accumulate Bitcoin (BTC). MicroStrategy holds 847,666 BTC, more than any other listed company, while Strive ranks fifth among public holders with 27,462 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries data. "I want Strive to succeed. I want every well-managed issuer of Bitcoin-powered Digital Credit to succeed," Saylor wrote, adding that fresh buyers add demand for an asset with a fixed supply, which he said would lift the value of both firms' holdings.

The two firms are also linked as customer and counterparty. In March, Strive bought $50 million of MicroStrategy's STRC preferred shares, and Saylor has publicly congratulated the company on recent purchases, including 1,355 BTC acquired on September 21. This week both firms added to their stacks, with MicroStrategy purchasing 1,666 BTC. Strive CEO Matt Cole echoed Saylor's message in a reply, writing that "the opportunity for our industry is to grow Digital Credit into a multi-trillion dollar asset class" and that "Strive and Strategy are stronger together." Both firms also offer preferred-equity instruments marketed to income investors: MicroStrategy's STRC and Strive's SATA.

Saylor acknowledged in the same essay that Bitcoin itself pays no interest, meaning payouts to preferred shareholders must come from corporate cash or new fundraising. Strive raised 85% of the money for its most recent purchase by selling SATA, Cole said, and paid an average of $85,396 per coin while BTC traded near $83,699 on Wednesday. Investor appetite remains mixed: DWF Ventures reported that only four of the top 20 crypto treasury stocks trade above the value of the coins they hold, and Saylor warned that a single weak issuer could damage confidence across the broader sector.