đSaylor's new strategy to buy BTC
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GM friends.
Hereâs what Iâll cover today:
đSaylorâs new strategy to buy BTC
đ Crypto chart of the week
đď¸ The latest DeFi news
đSaylorâs new strategy to buy BTC
BTC has performed pretty well over the past few weeks.
Yes, it has now retraced from $74,000 to $69,000. But overall, it has still performed better than stocks and gold on most days since the USâIran war started.
I think one key reason for that is the massive recent buying pressure from Strategy.
In the last 19 days alone, Strategy, the largest Bitcoin Treasury company led by Michael Saylor, bought over $3 billion worth of BTC.
And March 2026 is now on track to be the month with the largest increase in the amount of BTC bought by Strategy through STRC since it launched.
STRC is Michael Saylorâs latest financial experiment, funding Strategyâs recent major BTC buying spree. I believe it played a big role in BTCâs relative outperformance.
Iâll explain how it works belowđ
What exactly is STRC?
STRC is a perpetual preferred stock launched by Strategy that pays high monthly dividends while targeting to maintain a stable price of $100.
In some ways, it is like a yield-bearing stablecoin with an 11.5% APY.
That said, as Iâll explain, it definitely comes with risks.
When you buy STRC, itâs like youâre lending money to Saylorâs Strategy.
With the money raised via STRC, the company is buying more BTC. The recent surge in demand for STRC is why Strategy has been able to buy so much BTC lately.
How does it work under the hood?
As I said earlier, STRC targets a stable price of $100.
Everyone who holds it gets a monthly dividend.
When STRC trades above $100 due to high demand, Strategy can issue new STRC shares and sell them to raise more capital, which is then used to buy BTC.
When it trades below $100, Strategy can choose to increase its dividend to attract more buyers and restore its par price.
Initially, the monthly dividend for buying STRC was 9% annually. Now it is 11.5%.
So Strategy is basically paying people 11.5% to borrow their money and buy BTC. Where does all this money come from?
A big part of the answer is MSTR.
When MSTR stock trades at a premium to the value of its underlying Bitcoin holdings, Strategy can issue new MSTR shares and sell them for a profit.
That gives Strategy another source of capital, which supports the whole mechanism.
Initially, STRC was listed only on Nasdaq and on platforms like Robinhood.
But now there are also DeFi protocols like Apyx and Saturn that have brought a tokenized version of it on-chain, further increasing demand for it.
Is STRC actually sustainable?
Strategy has ~$2 billion in cash reserves that it can use to cover all the STRC dividend payments over the next 1-2 years.
So itâs very unlikely that Strategy will suddenly no longer be able to pay dividends to STRC holders at any point in the near future.
But a crucial thing to remember is that the STRC price isnât fixed at $100.
If you buy it at $100, youâre not guaranteed that youâll be able to sell it at $100 later, even though, so far, it has always returned to this price after short-term dips.
Yet if BTC stays in a prolonged bear market for several years, demand for STRC could decline, leading to a depeg.
Strategyâs financial model relies primarily on MSTR stock trading at a premium.
If the MSTR premium also disappears, Strategy loses one of its main ways to raise capital and may be unable to pay STRC dividends without selling BTC.
That could lead to some very bad situations for Strategy. So there are definitely risks.
But for now, STRC is clearly generating significant buy pressure for BTC.
If you hold BTC and were wondering why it has performed better than most asset classes lately, Michael Saylor is probably the guy you should thank:)
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Chart of the week
RWAsâ on-chain market cap has skyrocketed in 2026
Crypto meme of the weekđ
The latest developments in DeFi
BlackRock launched its staked Ethereum ETF
Fluid released the Fluid Lite USD Vault automating stablecoin yield strategies
Pendle launched limit order incentives offering up to 100% APR
S&P Dow Jones launched the first official S&P 500 perps market on Hyperliquid in partnership with trade[XYZ]
Tempo, the Stripe-backed blockchain for payments, launched its mainnet
Tangent introduced USG - a stablecoin backed by Curveâs LP tokens and Pendle PTs
Pump Fun became Solanaâs first dApp to generate $1 billion in revenue
Aave DAO is voting to cut its annual AAVE buyback budget from $50M to $30M
Pareto introduced Pareto Studio - an institutional platform for building and managing on-chain credit facilities
zkSync announced Cari Network - a zkSync-powered platform used by five U.S. banks to bring bank deposits onchain
Lido launched EarnETH & EarnUSD - two new vaults for stablecoin and ETH yield
Ethena reduced the sUSDe unstaking cooldown period to 1 day
Hinkal added support for private transactions on Solana
Opensea delayed its TGE and airdrop indefinitely
Katana launched its token KAT with a ve(3,3) tokenomics model
Aster launched its privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain
Byreal introduced Byreal Perps powered by Hyperliquid
Thatâs all for this week!
Until next time,
The DeFi Investor
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Have you considered that the banks won't like Saylor's new found dominance?
Saylor is trying to become a BTC backed bank that discredits the current model. I don't see the world in which they don't try to lower the chances of him succeeding.
Hence why they're doing what they are on the Clarity Act to protect themselves vs. Coinbase and Robinhood (who could offer stablecoin yields to win bank customers away).
JPMorgan were the ones trying to exclude MSTR from the MSCI Index to stop the passive MSTR bid (to keep the mNAV high). So it's not like they're already playing nice and going to take it lying down. And that just adds risk to the MSTR thesis / current mNAV premium.
Apparently it's the Basel III rules are what is protecting Saylor's advantage, but the window could be closing soon. I need to research it more when I'm less tired. But this is what it says...
1.Who decides the Basel III rules?
The rules are drafted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in Switzerland. However, they have no legal authority. In the US, the "deciders" are the Federal Reserve (The Fed), the OCC, and the FDIC.
- The Current Status (March 2026): On March 12, 2026, the Fed officially unveiled its proposal to implement the Basel III "Endgame" in the US. It includes a 90-day public comment window.
- The "1,250% Penalty": This is the rule that assigns Bitcoin to "Group 2b." It requires a 1,250% risk weight, which translates to a 1-to-1 capital requirement. If a bank holds ÂŁ100m of Bitcoin, they must set aside ÂŁ100m of their own capital. This makes holding Bitcoin on a bank balance sheet "economically prohibitive"âitâs essentially a 100% tax on the bank's liquidity.
2.Is this stopping US Banks from buying BTC?
Yes, for their own "Banking Book" (Reserves). No sane bank CEO will use ÂŁ10B of capital to hold ÂŁ10B of Bitcoin when they could use that same ÂŁ10B to back ÂŁ100B of mortgages or corporate loans. This creates a Regulatory Chokepoint that gives Saylor his "window." Because Strategy Inc. is a software company, not a bank, it doesn't have to follow these rules. Saylor is "arbitraging" the fact that he isn't a bank.
3.How long and defensible is the Saylor Window?
The window is currently under extreme pressure due to two "Black Swan" events in early 2026:
- The MSCI "Freeze" (January 2026): You mentioned MSTR stayed in the index. Correct. But the nuance is lethal: MSCI has frozen the share-count metrics. This means if Saylor issues new shares to buy more BTC, the index funds will not buy them. He has lost the "mechanical bid" from passive ETFs. He must now find "active" buyers, who are far more price-sensitive.
- The Clarity Act (Mid-2026): This US legislation is expected to pass by June. While it doesn't change Basel capital rules, it provides the legal framework for banks to offer BTC products through their "Trading Books" rather than their "Banking Books."
4.How can Banks offer a Bond without holding BTC?
This is the "Synthetic Loophole." A bank like JPMorgan doesn't need to hold Spot BTC (which has the 1,250% penalty) to offer you a Bitcoin Yield Bond.
- The Structure: They sell you a bond (a liability for them). To hedge it, they buy Bitcoin ETFs or CME Futures.
- The Capital Edge: Under the FRTB (Fundamental Review of the Trading Book) rules, hedged derivative positions have much lower capital charges than spot holdings.
- The Result: Banks can offer a "Bitcoin-linked yield" at a 9% rate with almost zero "capital pain," whereas Saylor has to pay 11.5% and maintain a massive, inert BTC treasury. The banks aren't holding the "Crude Oil"; they are selling "Gasoline" made from paper.
*The Soros Perspective on the "Saylor Window"*
The "Saylor Window" is defensible only as long as Institutional Scarcity exists. In 2024, MSTR was the only way for many to get exposure. In 2026, with the Clarity Act and JPMorgan's "Basis Bonds," that scarcity is gone.
*Are the JPMorgan basis bonds real or theoretical?*
They are very real. As of March 2026, these aren't just theoretical white papers; they are active, revenue-generating products in the "Digital Credit" market.
Specifically, JPMorgan filed for Market Linked Securities (a form of structured note) as recently as March 3, 2026. These are essentially "Basis Bonds"âthey are principal-at-risk securities linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). They allow the bank to offer investors a "Bitcoin-linked yield" (often with a buffer or cap) without the bank ever having to touch a single "Physical Satoshi" on its own banking book.
Strong Piece!
The key insight is that Strategy is no longer just buying BTC. It is building a financing machine around BTC accumulation.
In plain English: Saylor found another way to pull outside capital into Bitcoin exposure without investors having to buy spot BTC directly.
In technical terms: STRC functions like a perpetual preferred funding layer that helps Strategy raise capital, support dividends, and convert investor demand into additional BTC purchases, as long as the broader capital structure remains attractive.
That is why this matters. BTC outperformance is not only about âdigital goldâ narrative right now. It is also about a large buyer using financial engineering to create persistent demand.
The risk is obvious, though. This model works best while confidence stays high, MSTR keeps a premium, and STRC demand remains stable. If BTC enters a prolonged bear market and the premium structure breaks, the financing loop gets weaker fast. That is the difference between a powerful flywheel and a fragile reflexive system.
The DeFi section matters too. Tokenized exposure, fixed-rate borrowing, RWAs, on-chain credit, and bank deposit rails all point to the same bigger theme: crypto is increasingly becoming a capital markets stack, not just a token marketplace.