I don't think Bitcoin is going to necessarily disintermediate the banks. I think Bitcoin will make the traditional finance system better, right? And I think that's how we should think about it. Will it mean that we might have a group of neo banks who embrace digital assets start to win over traditional banks who don't? Yes. But I don't think we can ever really disintermediate the traditional banking system. We're not going to disintermediate the US dollar as an example, which people have the ambition that's what Bitcoin does. I don't think we ever want to do that. I don't think that's the role of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's actually maturing. And that to me is what has to happen. We have to mature. And you know, I heard somebody say the other day, hey, 7% of the world is allocated to Bitcoin. There isn't a chance in hell it's 7%. It's more like 0.7%.
The largest institutional Bitcoin holder wants to be the JP Morgan of digital capital and it is buying more Bitcoin while buying back its own credit. Strategy wants to become the JP Morgan of Bitcoin. Yet, its chief executive insists Bitcoin will not replace banks or the US dollar. That striking message comes from Phong Le of Strategy, the world's largest institutional Bitcoin holder. He calls himself a libertarian in the philosophical sense, arguing that all 8 billion people should access Bitcoin however they choose through a bank account, an ETF, MSTR, STRC, a custodian or cold storage, or not at all. Le separates two stress tests. In 2022, the question was existential. Could Bitcoin work as a capital markets instrument within traditional finance? It could. The latest bear market, which he hopes is over, tested something different. Whether products built on top of Bitcoin, such as digital credit, can survive. He says they can. Bitcoin itself, he adds, remains healthy and is close to full integration with traditional capital markets. Fresh SEC filings show that test unfolding in real time. Strategy's September 21st filing disclosed the purchase of 950 Bitcoin for $75.7 million at an average of $79,670, lifting holdings to 846,000 BTC. The same week, it spent $174 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares after the board doubled its digital credit repurchase authorization from $1 billion to $2 billion on September 8th. A $5.4 billion US reserve remains earmarked for dividends and interest. Le models Strategy on JP Morgan creating capital products, distributing them, and building a platform without necessarily becoming a bank. He expects neo banks embracing digital assets to gain ground on traditional banks. While Bitcoin improves the existing system rather than displacing it. For investors, the pitch is integration, not disruption, and its durability now depends on digital credit holding up under continued stress. If you want sharper crypto market analysis before the next big move, comment, share, and subscribe.
I'm a libertarian true, you know, like to the core. And I don't mean that from a political. I mean that just from a philosophical point of view, right? Everyone should be able to do what they want to do, right? And so if you have 8 billion people in the world and they want to access Bitcoin by buying their Bitcoin through their bank account, they should be able to do that, right? And if they want to buy an ETF, they should be able to do that. If they want to buy MSTR and STRC, they should be able to do that. If they want to buy Bitcoin through a custodian, they can do that. They want to buy Bitcoin and put it in cold storage. Like there's no sort of you can't do that, right? Oh, you can have Bitcoin, but only the way I tell you to do it, right? Like that is not a libertarian mindset, right? And it's not really what Bitcoin was about. So, you know, and also if you don't want to have Bitcoin, right, you can choose to do that, too, right? And I'm not going to tell you what you can or cannot do. I might have an opinion on why you might want to have Bitcoin, but ultimately it's your choice, right? So, that's my view on that topic. And as far as, you know, 2022, there is still this grand experiment of whether it made sense for a publicly traded company to have Bitcoin on their balance sheet. And I think what was tested in 2022 was Bitcoin as a true capital markets instrument in traditional finance and we proved that that can work. What was tested in this most recent and hopefully completed bear market cycle was whether a product built on top of Bitcoin like digital credit can work or not. And I think we've proven that it can, right? And so they're two very different things. 2022 was existential where 2024 or sorry 2026 was really about can you build products on top. Some people are trying to make it existential. It isn't. Bitcoin's fine. Bitcoin is doing well. And now it's fully integrated or about to be fully integrated into the traditional capital markets which I think is wonderful.
I don't think Bitcoin is going to necessarily disintermediate the banks. I think Bitcoin will make the traditional finance system better, right? And I think that's how we should think about it. Will it mean that we might have a group of neo banks who embrace digital assets start to win over traditional banks who don't? Yes. But I don't think we can ever really disintermediate the traditional banking system. We're not going to disintermediate the US dollar as an example, which people have the ambition that's what Bitcoin does. I don't think we ever want to do that. I don't think that's the role of Bitcoin. JP Morgan is the most important company in the world in the traditional capital system, right? In addition to being a traditional bank, right? They create capital products. They hold a pristine balance sheet. And they sell those products. They innovate. They work with everybody in the financial ecosystem in many different ways. But they're at the middle of the traditional capital system. We at Strategy want to be in the middle of the digital capital system of Bitcoin, right? Do I want to be a bank? Not necessarily. Not really. But do we want to create innovative products on top of Bitcoin? Do we want to distribute those products? Do we want to create a platform? Do we want to help improve the capital markets in the system today? Absolutely. Right. And so like who wouldn't aspire to be the JP Morgan of digital capital markets? Who wouldn't aspire to be the Apple of consumer devices? Who wouldn't aspire to be, you know, what Google is in terms of information and intelligence. So, I think it would be great to be the JP Morgan of Bitcoin.
What does Jamie Dimon think of that aspiration?
I don't know. I think Jamie Dimon is a Bitcoiner behind the scenes, but he'll say what he needs to say externally. I think everyone is a Bitcoiner privately once they learn and understand Bitcoin.
One investor skipped $98,000 Bitcoin, bought a Wall Street credit product instead, and has made $750,000 while corporate Bitcoin holders sell. Gary Cardone reveals that he skipped Bitcoin at $98,000, bought STRC instead, and has earned $750,000 while collecting $63,000 a month, and accumulating 12 Bitcoin. Buying near par at 99.5. He plans to exit into cash once STRC reaches 99.5 or 100 and says even buying Bitcoin later at $80,000 leaves the trade a success. The backdrop is a market absorbing heavy supply. Cardone notes that Saylor has stopped selling and that when Saylor started selling, he suspected the end was near. Roughly 180 treasury companies, perhaps only four keeping their positions, hold about 600,000 Bitcoin that must return to market. Satsuma's collapse released 600 Bitcoin and the market held. He stayed bearish all summer, hoping to buy below $57,000 and welcomes Wall Street's takeover as a shift from an X-driven market to a real one. Fresh filings show buyers returning. Strategy's September 21st SEC filing disclosed 950 Bitcoin purchased at an average of $79,670, lifting holdings to 846,000 BTC alongside $174 million of STRC repurchases. Strive reported buying 1,355 Bitcoin at about $79,475 between September 14th and 18th. Cardone argues STRC's 11.5% payout with a favorable tax allocation outperformed passive Bitcoin holding. He borrows from Coinbase at 7.5% and his bank at 5.5% which he says removes volatility from the underlying asset and ends the chase for 100 or 200 Bitcoin. Bitcoin, he adds, will eventually become premium collateral and entry price matters. The takeaway, institutional credit, leverage, and disciplined entries are replacing narrative-driven accumulation as Bitcoin's investment framework. All right, let's get back to the interview.
Well, look, you know, when Saylor stopped selling, I mean, we have a price here that like Saylor's not selling but not buying. When he started selling, I thought, okay, we might be reaching the end. The Satsuma implosion the other day. Like I said months ago, hey, all of these Strategy companies have to sell their Bitcoin before we can go anywhere. Like 180 companies, I think four of them maybe keep their position. But you got 600,000 Bitcoin that need to come back. 600 Bitcoin from Satsuma came back in. That's good. We have a lot of pressure on this market and it's holding here. Now, I was bearish all summer because quite frankly, I wanted to buy more Bitcoin at 57,000 or below. And if the market's gonna allow me to talk it down while Saylor couldn't say anything and you know, the BMNR guys on his back feet, I mean, everybody's struggling. I'm like, hey, if this market's going to allow X Twitter spaces for me to just pound on it, the worst case is my twin brother buys a lot of Bitcoin he couldn't have bought otherwise. We'll figure out how thick this market really is. Like is this really a market? Is it an X market or is it a real market? And I want a real market. I am so tired of the X spaces Twitter Bitcoin holders thinking that they control anything here. And so to me, this is why I came into this market. I've had to wait eight or nine years, but Wall Street's taking over and it's awesome. Yeah, absolutely awesome.
I have been made fun of on my Strategy STRC package. I'd love to take somebody through this. I could have bought $98,000 Bitcoin six, eight, nine months ago and instead I bought STRC and I've been paid $63,000 a month. I've acquired 12 Bitcoin and I'm still going to be able to move from STRC at 99.5. That's what I paid for it. As soon as it hits 99.5 or 100, I'm gonna move into cash. I've collected all that money. And if I have to buy $80,000 Bitcoin, this has been an awesome trade for me.
