Richard Deeble

I think we've been looking at Strategy $MSTR through the wrong lens. Over the past few weeks, I've been quite critical of several decisions made by Strategy. The $STRC buybacks, the massive USD reserves, the reluctance to increase dividend rates, and even some of the communication surrounding these decisions. And I know I'm not alone. But after listening to @CJ_Bitcoin from Strategy and @ColeMacro from Strive $ASST on @chasepalmieri's podcast, I've started questioning whether we've been using the right framework to evaluate Strategy in the first place. Strategy and Strive are playing two very different games. Strive is optimizing for aggressive Bitcoin accumulation, amplification, and ultimately maximizing total returns for its common shareholders. At its current scale, Strive can grow substantially by attracting retail and high-net-worth investors who understand Bitcoin, are comfortable underwriting its risks, and are willing to accept higher yields on Digital Credit. Strategy, on the other hand, is increasingly positioning itself to attract institutional capital at an entirely different scale. We're talking pension funds, insurance companies, banks, and other institutions capable of deploying billions of dollars. And here's where things get interesting. These investors don't think like us Bitcoiners. They don't necessarily want the highest possible yield. They want liquidity, predictability, credit protection, stability, and confidence in the issuer. Suddenly, some of Strategy's decisions start making a lot more sense. → The USD reserves: Not simply idle capital that could have been deployed into Bitcoin, but an important source of confidence for investors underwriting credit risk. → The STRC buybacks: Not necessarily a mechanism to drive immediate price appreciation, but potentially a way to demonstrate support for the instrument and strengthen confidence in its ability to trade near par. → The dividend policy: Raising yields might attract another few billion from yield-sensitive investors, but it could also send the wrong signal to institutions that associate unusually high yields with distress. → The communication: Increasingly focused on balance sheet resilience, risk management, and institutional credibility rather than the aggressive upside narrative many retail investors want to hear. Matt Cole made a particularly interesting point. Even if Strategy raised its dividend rates by 200 basis points and attracted another $3–5 billion, that wouldn't fundamentally change the equation for a company of its size. Strategy needs to figure out how to attract the next $25 billion, $50 billion, and eventually much more. That's a completely different challenge. Does this mean Strategy has made all the right decisions? Absolutely not. Even CJ acknowledged that the way the USD reserve was managed created problems. And understanding the rationale behind a decision doesn't automatically make it the right one. But perhaps we've been making a mistake by evaluating both companies against the same objectives. We've been asking why Strategy isn't behaving more like Strive, when we should be asking whether Strategy is successfully building the infrastructure needed to bring institutional capital into Bitcoin at scale. Strive is trying to maximize the opportunity available at its current scale. Strategy is trying to dramatically expand the scale of the opportunity itself. And ultimately, both approaches could be enormously beneficial for Bitcoin and the entire Bitcoin Treasury industry. The more I think about it, the more I believe we need to rethink how we evaluate these companies. Because if they're pursuing different objectives, targeting different pools of capital, and operating at fundamentally different scales, shouldn't we also be measuring their success differently? Different investors. Different scales. Different strategies. Different measures of success.