Michael Saylor built a software company into the world’s most visible corporate champion of bitcoin. His successor runs it now. And on a recent day Phong Le didn’t mince words.
“Bitcoin is the United States of money.”
The remark landed with force. It came as Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, wrestles with market swings, dividend obligations and a freshly reworked financing model. Le’s statement wasn’t marketing fluff. It framed bitcoin as a constitutional order for currency itself. Transparent rules. Fixed supply. No ruler can print more. Yahoo Finance reported the comments on July 4, 2026, alongside news that Le had put roughly $1 million of his own money into the company’s preferred shares.
The purchase returned to break-even after a bitcoin price drop. Le bought 11,000 shares of the STRC perpetual preferred at an average $90.80. He said he would hold until it reached par, “likely longer.” Strategy engineered that security to trade near $100. It adjusts the dividend monthly to defend the peg. The stack now exceeds $13 billion. And the company recently lifted the annual payout to 12 percent from 9 percent.
Le’s personal stake sent a signal. So did his analogy. He compared bitcoin’s design to the American Constitution. Both replace human discretion with predictable limits. He spoke from experience. His family fled Vietnam as refugees. Control over money, he suggested, offers hope to those who have seen governments seize or devalue it.
But beyond the rhetoric sits hard data. Strategy holds 818,334 bitcoin. That makes it the largest corporate owner by a wide margin. Saylor started the accumulation in 2020 with a $250 million purchase. The bet has reshaped the balance sheet. Software operations still exist. They generate revenue. Yet bitcoin now defines the story.
Le points to mainstream banks adding services. Goldman Sachs. Citi. Institutional interest has grown. He predicts bitcoin could function as a global reserve asset inside ten years. The thesis rests on scarcity. Twenty-one million coins. No more. Governments cannot inflate it. That property, he argues, protects wealth from censorship, political pressure and monetary erosion.
The comparison to the United States carries weight in Washington these days. President Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The White House document capitalized it with bitcoin already seized through forfeiture. Agencies had thirty days to transfer holdings. The order called for budget-neutral ways to acquire more. No new taxpayer cost. It also created a separate stockpile for other digital assets.
Bitcoin, the order noted, acts like digital gold. Its fixed supply gives early adopters among nations a lasting edge. Officials described the reserve as a “digital Fort Knox.” The policy stopped sales of seized bitcoin. It aimed to maximize the position rather than liquidate it.
Saylor himself has pushed the idea for years. He joined lawmakers and crypto executives in Washington in September 2025 to back legislation that would have the U.S. acquire one million bitcoin over five years. The Block covered the roundtable. Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Nick Begich sponsored the measure. The goal aligned with Saylor’s long-standing view that nations should treat bitcoin like the Louisiana Purchase or Alaska. A strategic land grab in digital form.
Yet corporate reality has grown more complex. Bitcoin’s price fell in 2026. Strategy posted a $12.5 billion quarterly loss on the mark-to-market swings. Rivals kept buying. Some analysts questioned whether Strategy remained the dominant purchaser. Bitwise noted the shift.
So the company adjusted. On June 29, 2026, it unveiled changes to its financing structure. Bloomberg reported that Strategy may sell up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin to strengthen cash reserves. The move funds dividend payments on the preferred stock. It also set up $1 billion repurchase programs for both common and preferred shares. Management pledged to issue common equity more carefully, especially when shares trade near the net asset value of the bitcoin holdings.
Shares jumped 13 percent on the news. The largest one-day gain in months. Executives described the overhaul as disciplined evolution. They still aim to be net accumulators of bitcoin. The focus has sharpened on bitcoin per share. That metric, they say, drives long-term value more than total holdings alone.
The preferred stock plays a central role. STRC turned into a credit engine. Investors buy it for yield backed by the bitcoin balance sheet. High trading volumes have appeared. One day saw $1.5 billion change hands. Saylor called the liquidity impressive. The structure lets the company raise capital without constant equity dilution. It borrows against the asset rather than selling it outright. Until now.
Phong Le’s $1 million bet sits inside that machinery. His family trust made the purchase in June. The timing coincided with bitcoin weakness. Yet he framed it as conviction, not speculation. The same conviction that led him to call bitcoin the United States of money.
And the comparison resonates. The Constitution limited government power through checks and enumerated rights. Bitcoin limits monetary authorities through code and consensus. No central bank can expand the supply. No executive can order more coins into existence. That immutability appeals to investors scarred by inflation or capital controls.
Critics remain. They see leverage. They see accounting volatility. They question whether a software firm should function as a bitcoin bank. Strategy’s operating business still loses money on modest revenue. The bitcoin holdings dwarf everything else. Mark-to-market rules that took effect in 2025 amplified the swings. Gains and losses now flow straight through the income statement.
Still, the model has attracted imitators. Other public companies added bitcoin to their treasuries. Some cite Strategy as proof of concept. Saylor continues to evangelize at conferences. He talks of bitcoin reaching hundreds of thousands per coin. He envisions it as an apex property.
Le’s remarks tie the corporate bet to something larger. A monetary constitution. A refuge for capital. Hope born from displacement. His family’s story from Vietnam echoes in the message. People should control their savings. Rules should bind the powerful. Bitcoin delivers both.
The U.S. government has taken a first step. The reserve exists. Forfeited coins sit inside it. Further purchases would require congressional approval or creative budget maneuvers. Trump once floated selling gold to buy bitcoin. That idea has not advanced. Yet the policy direction favors holding rather than selling.
Strategy, meanwhile, fine-tunes its balance sheet. It sells a little to pay dividends. It buys back shares when prices sag. It issues new instruments to fund more accumulation. The goal stays constant. Increase bitcoin per share. Treat the asset as primary treasury reserve. Accept volatility as the price of conviction.
Le’s purchase of STRC shares reinforced the point. He put skin in the game at a discount. He signaled belief that the structure would hold. Par value would return. The dividend would support it. And bitcoin would keep its special status.
Short sentences. Long positions. The company has held through multiple cycles. It bought at prices that once looked reckless. It borrowed heavily. It converted itself into a leveraged proxy for the asset it holds. Now it refines the leverage.
Bitcoin’s price action will decide much of the narrative. A sustained rally restores paper profits and quiets doubters. Another leg down tests the preferred stock peg again and forces harder choices on sales. Either way the company has tied its fate to the thesis Le articulated.
Transparent rules. Fixed supply. A monetary order that no individual controls. The United States of money. The phrase may sound grandiose. Yet it captures the ambition. Strategy didn’t just buy bitcoin. It bet the enterprise on a new form of money. And the CEO just reminded the market why.
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