Michael Saylor: Why the U.S. needs a Strategic Crypto Reserve
In a recent interview, Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy), shared his perspective on the potential creation of a U.S. Strategic Crypto Reserve. As the leader of the world’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder with 499.096 BTC on its balance sheet, Saylor brings a unique perspective to this conversation. His company’s Bitcoin holdings, currently valued at approximately USD 41.286 bln, represent a significant 2.38% of all Bitcoin in existence.
The case for a national Bitcoin strategy
Saylor has been actively engaging with policymakers across the political spectrum, meeting with “a bunch of senators on the Democratic and Republican side, a bunch of Congress people, few members of cabinet, and a few members of the administration.” His mission remains consistent: to talk about Bitcoin with “anybody anywhere in the world every day.”
When asked about the recent announcement regarding a potential Strategic Crypto Reserve that would include not just Bitcoin but other cryptocurrencies like XRP, Solana, and Cardano, Saylor called it “bullish for Bitcoin and bullish for the entire U.S. crypto industry.” While acknowledging that conservatives might prefer a Bitcoin-only policy due to Bitcoin’s status as “a commodity, an asset without an issuer,” he recognized the president’s right to adopt a more liberal economic stance.
Saylor’s core argument centers on the strategic value a Bitcoin reserve would bring to the United States. “If the United States takes a position in the emerging crypto economy, if it buys up 10-20% of the Bitcoin network, we’re going to pay off the national debt,” he explained. “Why wouldn’t that be in the interest of the United States?”
Bitcoin as a long-term national investment
Drawing parallels to historic territorial acquisitions, Saylor compared a potential Bitcoin investment to America’s most successful land purchases. “The United States’ best investments are Alaska, Mexico, California, and Louisiana,” he stated. “We’re still holding them hundreds of years later.”
He emphasized the long-term perspective appropriate for national investments: “Presumably you want to buy Bitcoin, you want to hold it for a hundred years.” According to Saylor, this approach aligns with how nations should view strategic assets.
To illustrate his point, Saylor referenced specific historical transactions: “We bought Manhattan for 60 guilders—it was a good trade. We bought Alaska for six million bucks—it was a good trade. We paid $40 million for 75% of this country—it’s a good trade.”
This long-term perspective also addresses concerns about Bitcoin’s volatility. When questioned about potential drawdowns of 20-50%, Saylor countered, “I don’t think anybody’s ever lost money in the Bitcoin Network holding four years.”
The economic opportunity for America
Saylor frames Bitcoin not as competition to the U.S. dollar but as an alternative to “international real estate, global equities, expensive money managers on Wall Street, and any long-range investment that somebody makes.”
He outlined an ambitious growth trajectory for Bitcoin: “Right now we’re about a $2 trillion market in Bitcoin. It’s going to $20 trillion, then it’s going to $200 trillion. It’s growing 20% a year, and that capital is coming from overseas—from China, from Russia, from Europe, from Africa, from Asia—from the 20th century to the 21st century.”
This perspective positions a Strategic Crypto Reserve as an economic opportunity rather than merely a speculative investment. Saylor described it as potentially “the greatest economic program of the 21st century for this country,” suggesting that the U.S. could “buy this for a nickel and pay off the national debt.”
Understanding digital asset categories
During the interview, Saylor provided a taxonomy of digital assets that helps contextualize Bitcoin’s unique position:
- Digital commodities (like Bitcoin) - Assets without an issuer, backed by digital power
- Digital currencies (like stablecoins) - Backed by a fiat currency equivalent
- Digital securities - Assets with an issuer backed by a stock or bond
- Digital tokens - Assets with an issuer backed by digital utility
This classification highlights why Saylor believes Bitcoin deserves special consideration. As a digital commodity without an issuer, Bitcoin avoids many of the regulatory complications associated with other cryptocurrencies, particularly regarding securities laws and insider trading concerns.
“The reason that there’s so much support for a commodity like Bitcoin is it is an asset without an issuer,” Saylor explained. “No entity controls it, no entity runs the network, no entity can change the protocol, no entity has enough power to impact the market trading of that protocol.”
Strategy’s Bitcoin investment success
Saylor pointed to his company’s experience as evidence of Bitcoin’s potential. “My company’s gone from a $250 million investment to almost a $50 billion position in 48 months,” he noted. As of 12 March 2025, Strategy holds 499.096 Bitcoin acquired at an average cost of USD 66,357, currently representing an unrealized profit of approximately +USD 8.168 bln.
This track record has convinced Saylor that Bitcoin is “probably the most certain thing in the financial universe if you have a long time horizon” rather than a speculative asset. He disputed the characterization of Bitcoin as “highly speculative,” noting that it’s “been the best performing asset in the past 15 years and generally the best performing asset every single year.”
The path forward
While Saylor has strong opinions about the strategic value of Bitcoin for the United States, he acknowledged that the specifics of implementing and funding such a reserve would be determined through a comprehensive political process. “I’ll leave that to the president’s working group,” he said, noting that the decision-making body would include “the head of the Treasury, the SEC, the CFTC, Commerce, the Attorney General” and others.
Saylor indicated that a timeline for this process is already underway, with “digital assets framework and recommendations from the executive order on the president’s desk” expected by July 22nd. He concluded that “it should be interesting to watch what happens between now and then.”
Conclusion
Michael Saylor’s vision for a U.S. Strategic Crypto Reserve represents a bold proposition for national economic policy. By framing Bitcoin as a digital commodity with unique properties and unprecedented growth potential, he makes the case that large-scale national investment could help address long-term fiscal challenges while positioning America at the forefront of the digital asset economy.
Whether policymakers will embrace this vision remains to be seen, but Saylor’s advocacy has undoubtedly brought the conversation about Bitcoin’s role in national strategy to the highest levels of government. As his company Strategy continues to demonstrate the potential of corporate Bitcoin accumulation with its holdings of 499.096 BTC, the idea of a national approach to Bitcoin acquisition may increasingly enter mainstream policy discussions.