Michael Saylor | The Bitcoin Treasury Debate Gets Heated
We discuss:
- Bitcoin in 2026
- Are There Too Many Treasury Companies?
- The Future of mNAVs
- Building on Digital Credit
Watch it here:
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Replies (71)
Saylor needs a dose of the boots π₯Ύ
Saylor assumes the worst in Dannyβs position. Not sure if it was intentional or not. Disappointed with Saylor
Saylor is kinda right tho, although he did rant for longer than he needed to
Saylor's well on the way of the villain's journey
TBH, this was a bit painful to watch. I wish you had enough time to ask him why we need his βdigital moneyβ synthetic financial product when Bitcoin itself is already that.
STRC is a way to store money that could be needed in the short term without the volatility. You basically give up the volatility to earn 11% interest. Thereβs value in that even for Bitcoin maximalists
Fair enough, but why call it digital money, if itβs a Bitcoin-backed money market fund.
Dan Hillery and Forst HODL have some solid MSTR prefs breakdowns. Bitcoin is the engine that powers these products
I dont think he does. He calls it digital credit. And he wants somebody else to use that product to create digital money which would be a stable coin built on top of it. Thatβs how I understand his terminology anyway
You did well Danny.
Currently listening to it while I scroll NOSTR
Danny, it looks like it's a difference of vision. On the one hand, bitcoin goes into what will likely become a closed command and control market, or we seek a true free market where bitcoin eliminates all of the issues with fiat and we start fresh. I would have like you to address that with him, but I also know it's hard to get an edge in word wise.
hard? try impossible. every bully tactic in the book deployed to shame Danny for delving outside βacceptableβ line of thinking - all so tiresome.
Great job Danny! Companies and individuals should strive to be productive. This is the part Saylor ignores. Selling debt to buy bitcoin is not productive. Itβs obvious when taken to the extreme in a world where all companies just issue debt and buy bitcoin. Itβs absurd. Yet if all companies strive to be productive in their own way then that makes sense.
All treasury companies are garbage. Basically scams where insiders use their influence to acquire more bitcoin than they could otherwise do personally. Saylor pretends that these are real businesses trying to be productive and simply buying bitcoin. They arenβt and he knows it. Strategyβs preferreds do add value to the marketplace so letβs call them the exception.
They should strive to get their investors return. Having a Bitcoin treasury does this. Pretty simple really.
I can strive to be an Olympic sprinter but it wonβt happen. However I donβt go around trying to (fraudulently) get people to invest in my future as a sprinter
How is it fraud? They lay out their thesis pretty clearly. Once a company has a stack of bitcoin they have different operating models they can move to. Strategy moved to the preferred market because they think they can offer higher yield while being way more collateralized than the standard offerings and therefore out compete the market. So far this thesis is playing out.
I donβt own anything besides bitcoin and some stupid shit in my limited 401k for my fiat job, but I donβt begrudge companies from trying to build a treasury of bitcoin.
It probably isnβt fraud by the legal definition. Itβs more like a shitcoin. Iβm of the belief that companies should do something productive. Eventually they have to or will fail. My issue with most treasury companies is I donβt believe they actually are trying to do anything productive. I suppose they could so I canβt disagree with you on that. I think theyβre all engaged in this ledge Ponzi scheme where they want you to buy equity in their company that does nothing and never will. Since they disclose that itβs not legal fraud. But itβs still a misallocation of capital which I canβt support. They should strive to do something productive with their time as we all should. Hodling bitcoin isnβt productive. Saylor knows this because he could use one of his own absurd analogies to deduce it
Saylor views most of the S&P and misallocated capital and fraudulent. His point is that most companies are shit, so why not at least be shit with Bitcoin on your balance sheet?
Iβm a self custody maximalist, but I find the STRC product helpful in that I can keep some funds in essentially a stable coin earning yield. This product wouldnβt exist without a company deciding to accrue Bitcoin. Strategies initial plan was to try to beat stacking sats by accessing deeper credit markets and that worked out pretty well but had a limited shelf life. I think offering a high yield savings account is going to drive a lot of profit and will put strategy into a new class of company over the next 5 years.
There is of course going to be the pure grifters looking to take your bitcoin, but I think in general there are ideas being generated that will only be possible for companies with a large stack of bitcoin. Now is the time to get that large stack.
Crowdfunding Zaps for Dannyβs medical expenses ππ«β‘οΈ
Well done sir π
Saylor sounds like an old whiny bastard that needs to be taken to the nursing home in this one lol. Strawman after strawman, rambles for 20 mins each time haha. It's xrazy too because he's definitely had some of the most enlightening bitcoin podcast appearances I've ever heard heard. Yikes
Saylor is absoltely correct.
well done Danny handled this thin skin lizard like a champ Saylor was insulting saying you had insulted him π€£ π€£ π€£ saying equity btc is better than cold storage self custody btc...
What Danny Did
Well done Danny. You may have just written yourself into Bitcoin history with this interview. I loved it on so many levels. Thank you.
View quoted note β


I am sorry that the discussion became personal.
Good job @Danny Knowles , Iβll leave it at that.
Cause if you don't Knowles now you know
Absolutely insufferable Saylor. Thin-skinned ego maniac.
Pretty funny though. And he said no lies. Companies with Bitcoin are better than companies without Bitcoin. The anti treasury company hysteria was always overblown. Like donβt buy them if you donβt want to buy them.
He spoke down to Danny for no reason. You can push back and not be a total dick at the same time.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
The obsession of the podcasters over the treasury companies has been going on for like a year. Itβs worth a little chastisement.
Obsess over the no coiners and the shitty politicians who continue to lie and shitcoin for their own profit.
Saylor was mostly right on his rant but definitely took it too personally and went on for too long
Good job Danny!
Worth listening? Or where can I better spend 2 hrs? π
Saylor's answers were all thorough and insightful, just overly aggressive in some cases.
I don't think his poor humour in this interview was because he's a shill or has a massive ego, rather a result of him being pissed off for a variety of reasons. He could have kept that in check better.
Great work Danny, keep up the great work!
A great analysis. @npub15dql...lm5m is 100% correct that all companies should buy bitcoin, but @Danny Knowles focussing on zombie companies buying bitcoin is the right question. Clearly the answer is that βyour capital is at riskβ and DYOR.
Danny, well done mate.
Saylor is an outlier. Dude has ruthless conviction. You showed poise and you should be proud. Keep at it. Love your work. Onward.
This is awesome and #bitcoin needed this. Reminds me of the old days when we didnβt give a flying shit about the rich and how they play their games. We chose Bitcoin not only to opt out but as revolution, a protest against money printing. Hell yes some have increased their wealth substantially, but donβt let that change you!
Turn back on some Rage Against The Machine and βFuck you I wonβt do what you tell me!β
Listening to Saylor go on and on about being insulted was tough. I couldnβt finish it. Still, hats off to Danny β you did well.
After reading the comments, I fear that many Bitcoiner's may have missed that this is a celebration for what makes Bitcoin great - my deeper learning after this is - it is not a zero-sum game.
heat + friction > pomp-pomps
Saylor was being a dumb bitch. He completely stopped listening. Never liked him.
Saylor seems to be intentionally missing your point Danny. He's saying, all else equal, it's better for a company to have vs. not have Bitcoin (fine, agreed). But your challenge was whether it makes sense that there are so many companies who's only business model is to buy bitcoin when people could just be acquiring actual Bitcoin themselves, and those companies can't get the same leverage/liquidity as MSTR. Totally fair question he could have just tried to answer since, if anything, it could be interpreted as a compliment to Strategy.
Who cares? If a company has taken Bitcoin off the market, it helps everyone else who owns Bitcoin.
Except they will likely have to sell it back, and some already have to buyback stocks and payoff debt.
This can actually cause more downward price pressure.
It takes a company say 2 years to buy 5,000 Bitcoin. Positive price pressure for 2 years, but barely noticed in markets.
Then boom, suddenly their stock tanks, no positive cash flow, no more equity investors, done. Must sell the Bitcoin,mostly all at once or at least rapidly to cover. Much larger downward price pressure than ever hallened upwards.
It's stupid to just buy Bitcoin and keep it on your balance sheet with no cash flow. It's worse for people to invest in this crap.
1. If they become forced sellers because they're not true hodlers but just grifters trying to get a management fee while the going is good. It's fiat behaviour that gets associated with Bitcoin.
2. All these companies are probably storing their Bitcoin with the same custodian, and they're all much more vulnerable to regulatory risk than an individual. This is added centralisation risk.
You can't stop it, but these are fair criticisms.
Danny wasn't pushing back on businesses using Bitcoin as a tool - i.e. better cash vehicle while they create value in their chosen markets. He was pushing back against companies doing this as their only activity. Saylor was being a dick - he's smart enought to know the nuanced difference.
In the long run all this noise is totally irrelevant. So price goes down, nbd. Those who understand BTC just keep accumulating. These are just nonsense arguments along the path. Keep helping to educate those close to you and help them avoid the real problems of the existing system.
I really don't care what he has to say. #Bitcoin doesn't care.
You rock Danny!
Bitcoin treasury companies introduce all kinds of risks that bitcoin doesnβt have.
View quoted note β
One of your best eps, for the conflict.. not the smug, long-winded explanations from the leverage lord.
@Danny Knowles should have let him have it. Need to worry less about being polite to your guests.
@npub15dql...lm5m is pioneering pure play, and he knows it. Couldnβt care less about his software company anymore.
I listened. I like your show, but you started the debate by saying, βIβve been critical of Bitcoin treasury companies,β and then spent the rest of the show on your heels saying, βIβm not being critical of Bitcoin treasury companies.β
Saylor is exactly right on every point he makes. Anyone and any entity who buys Bitcoin helps everyone else who owns Bitcoin, and is to be celebrated. This episode will be a service if it ends this particular form of Bitcoin FUD, because Michael Saylor demolished it.
Thanks for your show.

When I saw the What Bitcoin Did interview and saw Mike upset (to put it mildly), I got strong Greta Thurnberg vibes. And now, thanks to this pic, I can't get Brigitte Macron out of my head.
Hey Danny, please bro can I bring attention to the way in which transnational organizations have exploited the people and government of Fiji to exploit peopleβs acquifers, I mean itβs not widely known but Fiji Water is a fucking cancer on Polynesia
According to Saylor self custody is worth less than 1% of bitcoin's value proposition -- that's the important point for me, as I strongly disagree!
Without self custody can be coerced and controlled like everything else.
He's a bitcoiner who doesn't consider self custody important, and he's saying that he agrees "99%" with bitcoiners who do, and should not focus on little differences. Self custody is a huge one, bro!
He made some points, but he pretends not to understand that:
- there is a difference between a regular company buying bitcoin from its operational treasury vs. a "treasury" company buying bitcoin with debt raised from others
- there are many entities that can buy bitcoin directly
- self custody is important
View quoted note β
How dare you Danny π.
It was painful to watch how he talked down on you π
You deserve all the zaps in the world
It was difficult to sit through that. Always struggled with his arrogance.
How was Michael arrogant?
You did well Danny, definitely sone cringe moments - I got the impression he was in a bad mood and was exercising some frustrations. He really could have controlled his temper and been a more humble guest on your podcast... Even if he disagrees with the framing of your questions he didn't need to be quite so scathing, he just came off like a irritable twat at moments. Good on you for keeping your cool
Good work Danny, well handled. You were gracious and respectful.
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This was really good! I am sure Danny can take the heat and he handled it so well. He was asking exactly what most people think and Saylor did his usual thing. Talks like these provoke thoughts and introduce new perspectives. I wish there were more episodes like this on all podcasts. Bravo.


