Podcast Notes | Michael Saylor: Only 9 Years Left of the BTC "Gold Rush"; After 2035, the Door Will Shut Completely

Compiled & Edited: TechFlow

Guest: Michael Saylor (Founder of Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy)

Host: Binance Interview Team (unnamed)

Publisher: Binance (YouTube)

Publication Date: 2026-09-28 Duration: 37 minutes

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The guest is the founder of Strategy, which holds over 840,000 BTC on its balance sheet, representing more than 4% of the total supply that will ever exist. STRC mentioned throughout is a preferred stock product issued and traded on Nasdaq by his own company, and the entire product explanation essentially serves as an internal roadshow. Binance, the interviewer, also has listed STRC for trading, giving them a vested interest as well. The full transcript should be read from an insider's perspective.

Executive Summary

Saylor laid out Strategy's entire business model this episode. Here are five key takeaways for readers.

First, he uses two indicators to gauge the bull market: the 200-week moving average and the price premium/discount relative to that line. Bitcoin found support above $60k a few months ago and has now bounced back above it. In summer, institutional capital was drawn away by AI (SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, NVIDIA fundraising totaling roughly $1 trillion), but that outflow has stabilized, and funds are rotating back into crypto.

Second, Bitcoin's monetization has four drivers in sequence: ETF securitization (like IBIT), corporate treasury equity (Strategy, Strive, Metaplanet), digital credit products (like STRC, scaled from zero to ~$15 billion in 12 months), and bank mortgage lending. The fourth is just beginning, and he views it as the primary price driver for the next 36 months. The logic mirrors real estate mortgages: banks are willing to lend against houses, driving up property prices.

Third, STRC's core selling point is "refining" Bitcoin into something usable in the traditional world. Over the past six years, Bitcoin's annualized return has been ~35%, but with 40-45% volatility, most portfolios can't handle it. STRC reduces volatility by 80-90%, pays a 12% annual yield with bi-weekly dividends, has a $100 par value, and the company stabilizes it below par by repurchasing with its balance sheet. He compares himself to the Bank of England 300 years ago: hoarding gold, issuing credit notes.

Fourth, in his view, gold is a "lite version of Bitcoin": gold averaged ~12% annual returns over the past six years vs. Bitcoin's ~36%. More critically, gold supply grows 2% annually, doubling every 36 years, meaning wealth stored in gold is diluted by half every three decades. Bitcoin has no inflation.

Fifth, addressing "Is it too late?": The crypto economy is ~$3 trillion vs. $1,000-$1,200 trillion in other assets. Reaching 10% of that total would mean growing from $3T to $120T. By 2035, 99% of all Bitcoin will be mined, and he believes the period now to 2035 represents the final gold rush. In 20 years, Bitcoin will likely only outperform the S&P 500 by 3-5% annually, with excess returns fading.

Key Quotes

On Bitcoin's positioning:

"Bitcoin is becoming the world's digital capital. You can call it digital gold; it serves as a long-term store of value."

On why they built STRC:

"Think of Bitcoin as crude oil and digital credit as gasoline. Many engines run on gasoline, not crude oil."

On the product format:

"Bitcoin is a fighter jet, while digital credit like STRC is a commercial airliner. I prefer flying commercially, placing coffee on the tray table, ensuring not a single drop spills during takeoff or landing."

On gold:

"Gold supply grows 2% annually, doubling every 36 years. That means economic wealth held in gold is diluted by half every 36 years. Bitcoin has no inflation, making your wealth's half-life infinite."

On whether it's too late:

"The crypto economy sits at around $3 trillion today, while all other assets combined total 1,000 to 1,200 trillion. If we only reach 10% of those other assets, we grow from $3T to $120T."

Transcript

I. Gauging the Bull Market: Above the 200-Week Line, Capital Returns from AI Investments

Binance: Last week, we saw signals like net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs warming up. How do you judge "whether to ride the horse," and what metrics determine a bull market?

Michael Saylor: I believe Bitcoin found its support level above $60k a few months ago. We typically look at the 200-week moving average and the price's premium or discount relative to that line. The price has now bounced back above it, sitting slightly higher. During the summer, there were indeed net outflows of institutional capital, with massive flows going into AI-related plays: SpaceX's funding round, Anthropic, OpenAI, NVIDIA, along with mega cloud providers and data centers. This amounted to roughly $1 trillion in capital flow, acting like a magnet. I think this trend has hit stabilization and is starting to reverse. People realize you can't feed AI with infinite money, and the institutional capital that flowed out of the crypto economy is rotating back.

II. The Four Drivers of Bitcoin Monetization

Binance: From December 2025 to now, what do you think should have happened to Bitcoin, what actually did happen, and what chain reactions has it caused across the industry?

Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is becoming the world's digital capital, a long-term store of value, often called digital gold. Its first driver of adoption and monetization is securitization via ETFs, which have been highly successful, such as IBIT. The second is equity-based capital deployed through corporate treasuries, like MicroStrategy, Strive, and Metaplanet. The third is the major trend over the past 12 months: the rise of digital credit, creating lower-volatility products with more predictable returns and cash flows using Bitcoin, exemplified by tools like STRC. This segment grew from zero to approximately $15 billion in 12 months. The final driver is the emergence of bank lending.

Michael Saylor: As banks start holding Bitcoin, they will begin lending against it as collateral. Imagine if you couldn't get loans or mortgages on real estate—your property's value and price would stagnate. Once banks start issuing mortgages, rates drop, and credit conditions ease, assuming all else equal, house prices rise. Banks can create money out of thin air: they finance real estate, home prices rise; they finance art, art prices rise; they finance your purchases of Apple or Google stock, those stocks rise. They finance Bitcoin, and Bitcoin rises. This is an emerging trend and is likely the primary price driver for the next 36 months.

III. Why Hoarding Isn't Enough: The Case for Building STRC

Binance: Many watch your accumulation strategy closely, and now they're watching you build digital credit. Explain the evolution of your capital structure: how did you go from simply buying Bitcoin to creating digital credit?

Michael Saylor: Think of Bitcoin as crude oil and digital credit as gasoline. Many engines run on gasoline, not crude oil. Bitcoin contains immense energy, but to integrate it into the world's financial machinery, you must refine it into something more usable. Over the past six years, Bitcoin's annualized return has been ~35%, but accompanied by 40-45% volatility. Most investors cannot allocate an asset with 45% volatility to their portfolio without breaking it—it's like pouring pure crude into a car engine. Markets are vastly larger for tools yielding 10% with 10% volatility compared to 40% volatility.

Michael Saylor: If you enjoy volatility, buy Bitcoin. The cost is ten years without cash flow, holding your breath while riding a rollercoaster, which suits ambitious pioneers. But most people rely on credit. Money markets currently offer ~3.5% USD yields, with tens of trillions resting in them as safe assets. You cannot sell a zero-cash-flow, 9G-overload rollercoaster to a 70-year-old retiree. Our analogy: Bitcoin is a fighter jet, while digital credit like STRC is a commercial airliner. I prefer flying commercially, placing coffee on the tray table, ensuring not a drop spills during takeoff or landing. Fighter pilots find this boring, but most people just want to arrive comfortably at their destination. This is achieved through overcollateralization and market management around the underlying asset to eliminate volatility.

IV. The Specific Structure of STRC

Binance: If someone understands gold well, how should they understand the difference between STRC and tokenized gold?

Michael Saylor: Gold is physical capital; Bitcoin is digital capital. Over the past six years, gold's annualized return was ~12%, while Bitcoin tripled that at ~36%. Gold is a lite version of Bitcoin, less efficient because it has existed for 5,000 years and miners still extract more. Gold supply grows 2% annually, doubling every 36 years, diluting economic wealth held in gold by half per cycle. Bitcoin has no inflation, making your wealth's half-life infinite. Therefore, gold shouldn't be compared to STRC; it should be compared to Bitcoin: one is a 20th-century concept, the other a 21st-century one.

Michael Saylor: For an analogy, go back to the 18th-century Bank of England. It capitalized after purchasing large amounts of gold, then issued credit instruments like UK Consols, perpetual sovereign bonds paying coupons indefinitely with no maturity, backed by the Bank of England or national gold reserves. MSTR's strategy mirrors what the Bank of England did 300 years ago: we form a corporation, capitalize it with digital gold (currently ~$70B), then issue digital credit backed by that digital gold. Since we expect Bitcoin to appreciate 20-30% annually, distributing half the returns is effortless. We compete against bank preferred shares (5-6% yield), junk bonds (6%), and private credit baskets (~8%). Our credit instrument offers principal protection and stability with higher yields because our underlying asset is digital capital.

Michael Saylor: Because digital capital resides within a publicly traded company, we can create a public security called STRC, traded on Nasdaq, purchasable by any brokerage. It carries a $100 par value, provides a 12% annual yield paid bi-weekly, and when the price drops below par, the company deploys its balance sheet to buy back shares. When priced above $100, we issue additional shares to keep the credit instrument stable near par. Our value proposition is eliminating Bitcoin's volatility while delivering significantly higher returns than money markets, junk bonds, or corporate bonds, supported by our balance sheet for liquidity. The company currently holds over 840,000 BTC, exceeding 4% of the total supply that will ever exist. Visit strategy.com for real-time data: current holdings stand at $77.5B in total value, ~$6B in cash, and ~$71B in Bitcoin.

Translator’s Note: UK Consols are perpetual bonds issued by the British government starting in 1751, paying interest without redeeming principal, fully redeemed by 2015. Saylor uses them as an analogy for STRC’s "perpetual, non-maturing" structure.

V. No Fixed BTC Accumulation Target

Binance: Discuss long-term accumulation targets. Everyone tracks Strategy's continuous buying. Is there a planned target number?

Michael Saylor: We have no specific numerical target. We raise capital and immediately buy Bitcoin. We sell equity to buy Bitcoin; we sell credit securities—if someone wants to purchase $1B in credit, we take that proceeds and buy Bitcoin. We expect higher credit sales to correlate directly with higher Bitcoin purchases. Selling credit boosts our equity price, and if leverage gets too high, we sell equity to deleverage. Overall, we remain net buyers of Bitcoin, acquiring substantial volumes annually. It becomes exponentially harder as the price rises, but our securities' float and stock price also evolve. BTC, STRC, and MSTR exist in dynamic equilibrium, complementing each other effectively.

Binance: STRC is now also available for trading via Binance Equity Markets. Why is this broader distribution important?

Michael Saylor: First, tokenizing and digitizing assets shifts markets from banking hours (Monday-Friday, 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM) to a 24/7, 365-day operation. Second, on top of digital credit, we are building other products. The chain looks like this: Starting from digital capital (Bitcoin, ~35% return, 35-40% volatility), refining it into digital credit (10-12% return, 5-10% volatility), then converting it into digital currency. Digital currency yields digital dollars with returns: 7% yield, zero volatility. Current money markets operate on SOFR frameworks, while stablecoins merely guarantee overnight rates—JPY-stablecoins yield ~1%, EUR-stablecoins ~2%, USD-stablecoins ~3% to 3.5%. Stablecoins backed by digital credit can pay 6-7%, effectively doubling it.

Michael Saylor: The real opportunity lies in creating massive volumes of tokenized digital credit to begin replacing the $300 trillion credit market. It's one of the world's largest markets; capturing 1% equals $3 trillion. Scale further to create digital products with 20%, 30%, 40% yields, which becomes highly compelling for the DeFi economy. What is efficient money? The US dollar functions simultaneously as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. If I give you a dollar security that maintains daily/minutely value stability while paying interest, why keep anything else in your wallet? Currency depreciates at ~7% annually. Your digital currency tool yields over 7%, preserving purchasing power, allowing you to use it for every transaction.

Translator’s Note: SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) is the benchmark for risk-free USD money market yields. His point: current stablecoins (USDT, USDC) don't yield interest to users, but stablecoins backed by Bitcoin credit distribute 6-7%, effectively merging stablecoins and money market funds into one.

VI. Who Wins? Tool Builders Take the Largest Share

Binance: Looking 5 to 10 years ahead, who are the true winners in this migration toward digital credit and digital currency?

Michael Saylor: The winners are digital exchanges, digital wallets, DeFi protocols, token issuers, and financial engineers crafting products. You build a stablecoin/product backed by STRC, sell $100B, charge a 3% fee, and generate $3B in annual profit. How much is a company worth that earns $3B annually with 30-50% growth? The world's largest market is capital itself: ~$300T in credit, ~$150T in equity, $450T in liquid assets. Hundreds of trillions more sit in 20th-century assets—inefficient and illiquid. Companies and founders building these tools will naturally earn billions. Secondary winners are all investors: JPY assets move from 1% to 6%, USD assets from 3% to 10%. But the grueling work of this sector lies in creating digital currency, digital yields, and digital credit, which still requires infrastructure providers to distribute, support, sell, and maintain them.

Translator’s Note: He mentions Saturn, Apex, etc., working on such tools. These names come from ASR transcription and lack clarity. Independent verification is recommended; treat this as non-investment advice.

VII. AI and Two Types of Inflation: Services Become Cheaper, Scarce Assets Get Pricier

Binance: Elon Musk has said AI and robotics will eventually make nearly everything extremely cheap, rendering money less important. Yet Bitcoin will never exceed 21 million. How do you view this claim?

Michael Saylor: There are two inflation metrics in the world. One is the CPI, Consumer Price Index, roughly 3%. The other is the rate of currency depreciation, or cost of capital, reflected in the prices of scarce assets that wealthy individuals wish to hold. Over the past six years, these have appreciated ~15% annually, mirroring the S&P 500's ~15% 6-year CAGR. If you're wealthy aiming to preserve capital, your break-even threshold is 15%. CPI sits at only 3% because it comprises goods easily produced by machines: cereal, burgers, cars, drywall—anything human ingenuity plus machinery can manufacture is getting cheaper. Today's food costs less than 100 or 1,000 years ago. Elon Musk refers to wealth creation powered by boundless superintelligence: services from lawyers, therapists, teachers, accountants are becoming commoditized. Robots can clean homes, drive cars, cook meals, drive kids to school, making these cheaper. He's correct here.

Michael Saylor: But robots cannot fabricate prime urban real estate. You want a whole mountain, but robots can't mine a second peak. You desire an island or a Picasso painting, which robots cannot produce since Picasso is deceased. These scarce assets—prime real estate, fine art, legacy sports franchises—will appreciate ~15% annually alongside the cost of capital, never getting cheaper. What follows is inevitable: consumer goods, entertainment, education, and information-rich sectors continuously deflate in price. Eventually, anyone can afford Harvard-level education for their electricity bill, or hire 10,000 AI lawyers monthly for $10. But not everyone can own Aspen mountain peaks; mountains exist in finite supply. Wealth creators become extraordinarily rich and purchase all scarce art and real estate. A century ago, a Miami Beach acre sold for $10k; today it commands $10M-$20M, tomorrow $100M. If you want to live on Miami Beach, you need capital.

Michael Saylor: Thus, the economy expands, generating staggering wealth, raising average living standards for wage earners and the middle class. A bottle of Fiji water, unattainable for Henry VIII, whom the wealthiest monarch of his era would trade a kingdom for, is now universally accessible. But top-tier scarce assets will only appreciate. This is why everyday people should prioritize wealth accumulation: there will always exist desirable items that aren't purely functional commodities.

VIII. It's Not Too Late Yet

Binance: Final question. Lurkers and researchers constantly ask: Are we early enough? Or is it already too late? How do you assess where we sit on the adoption curve?

Michael Saylor: The crypto economy currently stands at ~$3 trillion, versus $1,000 to $1,200 trillion in all other global assets. Reaching just 10% of that total implies growing from $3T to $120T. We are in hyper-growth phase. When crypto hits $100 trillion, growth may normalize to "high growth," yet still outpace everything else. If the S&P averages 15% annually, Bitcoin historically delivered ~37%, running faster. Over time, Bitcoin's edge will compress to outpacing the S&P by 3-5% annually, but that timeline is roughly two decades away.

Michael Saylor: For the next decade, I anticipate a gold rush, spanning now until 2035. By 2035, 99% of all Bitcoin will have been mined. The final 1% will require another century to complete. Therefore, to acquire Bitcoin, buy between now and 2035. If I aimed to make $1 billion today, I'd partner with top talent to launch a digital credit or monetary instrument company. Digital tools outperform analog counterparts tenfold, scaling rapidly, targeting multi-trillion-dollar markets. There's no faster or superior method to generate wealth.