Is MicroStrategy About to Become the First Bitcoin Bank?

Saylor has used equity and debt to load up on Bitcoin so far and has 471,107 Bitcoin in the company coffers. So, what is STRK, and why is Saylor spinning up an all-new way to buy more Bitcoin?

Author

Adam Atlantic
January 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Yesterday, Michael Saylor, Chairman of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) announced on X.com the company is releasing a new market offering they call STRK (Series A Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock.

This offering (I’m sure you’ve guessed) is to raise capital for even more Bitcoin buys.

It comes hot on the heels of another $1.1 billion purchase of Bitcoin last week,[1] and $1.1 billion worth of buys the week before that.[2]

Saylor has used equity and debt to load up on Bitcoin so far and has 471,107 Bitcoin in the company coffers. So, what is STRK, and why is Saylor spinning up an all-new way to buy more Bitcoin?

What is STRK?

The detail of this offering is they plan to offer 2.5 million shares of STRK with cumulative dividends (at a rate to be determined). These dividends will be paid at the discretion of the company in cash or stock (or both).

Investors will have the right to convert STRK shares into Class A common stock under specific conditions.[3] These conditions give the company a lot of flexibility as to when and how these conversions might occur.

I’ll be honest with you; this does seem like its overcomplicating the strategy Saylor has already put in place for MicroStrategy.

Then again, it does align with the broader ‘21/21 Plan.’

That plan will raise $42 billion over three years, through $21 billion equity and $21 billion debt instruments to buy more Bitcoin. They’re already deep into that not even a month after announcing it.[4]

This is really a deeper play by Saylor on the future value of Bitcoin continuing to rise. Remember this follows now the 12th consecutive week of Bitcoin buys, with MicroStrategy’s holdings now totaling 471,107 BTC (worth roughly $48.5 billion).

Also, with the company’s average purchase price at $64,511 per Bitcoin, they’re sitting on a truckload of unrealised gains. Which could make for interesting reporting in the coming earnings seasons.

The Bitcoin Bank?

But all of this continues to have me think Saylor isn’t building a proxy for Bitcoin ownership, not a leveraged play on Bitcoin, but I think Saylor is building a Bitcoin bank.

Think about it. As the US starts to loosen crypto regulation and put in place appropriate framework for crypto economy, why wouldn’t Saylor turn MicroStrategy into a bank, backed by Bitcoin?

They could offer all kinds of financial instruments. All of it underpinned by their Bitcoin holdings. Accounts, wallets, deposits, lending, transactional services… the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

A while back I suggested that maybe Saylor would be looked back upon as the John D. Rockefeller of the modern era. Maybe I was wrong, maybe he’ll end up more like the Rothschild family[5] the most famous and wealthy banking dynasty in history.

Who knows which way history will look back. But as Bitcoin continues to reshape corporate strategy, it’s looks like it’s Saylor and MicroStrategy are closest to being the bridge between traditional finance and the decentralised finance of Bitcoin. 

Trust in crypto,
Adam Atlantic