At 1 PM on February 24, 2026, in Las Vegas, Michael Saylor will step onto the stage of the Enterprise Bitcoin Conference.
This is already his countless Bitcoin speeches. Over the past five years, he has stood on countless similar occasions, telling the world with the same passion: Bitcoin is digital gold, and companies should put it on their balance sheets.
But this time it’s different.
The conference name has changed from “MicroStrategy World” to “Strategy World.” Saylor’s title has changed from CEO to Executive Chairman. And the core topic of the speech has changed from “why buy Bitcoin” to three unfamiliar words: digital capital, digital credit, digital equity.
If you are still stuck on the impression that “Saylor is shouting buy signals again,” you may miss a turning point that is happening.
From “buying Bitcoin” to “issuing debt”: Saylor’s playbook has changed
Over the past five years, Saylor’s playbook was very simple: issue stock, issue convertible bonds, take the money to buy Bitcoin. MicroStrategy’s stock price became a leveraged ETF for Bitcoin, rising more than Bitcoin and falling more than Bitcoin. This approach was imitated by countless people, and questioned by countless people.
But in 2025, the situation changed.
An annual report on corporate Bitcoin adoption showed that last year, the real important thing was not “which companies bought Bitcoin,” but “which companies learned to finance with Bitcoin.” ATM secondary offerings, private placements, convertible bonds, preferred shares—these capital market tools were turned into an assembly line by a batch of Bitcoin treasury companies.
Saylor said very directly in a January conversation: Bitcoin is evolving into digital capital supporting digital credit, “power is driven by credit, not price.”
Translated into plain language: stop staring at K-line charts, the real battlefield is the credit market.
What exactly is digital credit
If you look at the Strategy World 2026 agenda, you will find a dedicated section called “Risk, return, and portfolio role of Bitcoin credit products.” The discussion is not about whether Bitcoin rises or not, but about how to price and allocate tools such as preferred shares and convertible bonds issued based on Bitcoin in a portfolio.
In 2025, these financial products, called “digital credit” by Saylor, started from zero and developed into a market scale of tens of billions of dollars, paying about $370 million in dividends by the end of the year. Strategy itself issued several series of preferred shares: STRK, STRF, STRD, STRC, STRE. Each has different terms, different durations, and different risk levels.
What does this mean?
It means a Bitcoin treasury company can, like a mini investment bank, build different rungs in its own capital structure: common stock at the top, convertible bonds in the middle, various preferred shares at the bottom. Different types of investors can choose to sit at different positions on the ladder according to their risk preference.
Recently, when Saylor pitched to sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, he simplified the logic into a number: selling credit instruments equivalent to 1.4% of capital assets can pay dividends forever and continuously increase Bitcoin holdings. This “1.4% forever” formula sounds like magic, but behind it is the full assembly line of capital operations.
Why this speech is worth paying attention to
The opening speech on February 24 is titled “Freedom by Design.” Saylor will, together with Strategy’s CEO, depict a corporate form that is “sovereign, independent, and immortal”—a corporate architecture supported by Bitcoin treasury, free from the constraints of the traditional banking system, and able to respond to AI shocks.
This narrative sounds grand, but there are several questions worth asking.
First, who is this model useful for. Reports show that in 2025, companies holding Bitcoin increased, but only a few can scale capital markets operations. Most companies just bought some Bitcoin and held it, not in the same dimension as Saylor’s playbook.
Second, where is the risk. During market volatility in the second half of last year, some companies were forced to sell Bitcoin to repay debts. Once there are dated fiat liabilities, Bitcoin is no longer an “untouchable” reserve asset. The complex preferred shares and convertible bonds may become nooses during liquidity shortages, and they have not undergone real stress testing.
Third, how does the market price it. Reports mention that credit spreads and risk tiers among Strategy’s different series of preferred shares are often inconsistent over the long term. This indicates the market has not yet learned to price such assets. When pricing is chaotic, it is an opportunity for those who understand, and a trap for those who do not.
What Saylor wants to prove
When Saylor stands on stage next week, he will no longer hold a “Bitcoin whitepaper,” but a set of financial statements and capital structure diagrams.
What he wants to prove is no longer “how high Bitcoin will rise,” but one thing: a company using Bitcoin as its underlying asset can, like a traditional financial institution, issue products at different tiers, attract different types of money, and form a self-circulating capital ecosystem.
If this logic works, Bitcoin’s role at the corporate level changes. It is no longer a number on the balance sheet, but the base of an engine. On top of the base, you can layer stocks, bonds, preferred shares, and various things not yet invented.
Of course, this logic may not work. The capital market game is much more complex than buying Bitcoin. Liquidity, pricing, risk control, regulation—each link may get stuck.
But at least one thing is certain: Saylor is no longer satisfied with being the “first to buy Bitcoin.” He wants to be the definer of a new asset class.
Conclusion
1 PM, February 24, Las Vegas.
When Saylor steps on stage, the audience may be the most concentrated group of “Bitcoin corporate believers” in the world. Their companies either have already bought Bitcoin, are considering buying Bitcoin, or are learning to issue debt and finance like Saylor.
They will hear, ask questions, worry, and this will be a window to observe the market over the next few months.
After all, when a person starts talking about “digital credit” instead of “digital gold,” the game behind him has already changed.
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