Bitcoin’s recent stretch of muted price action is a sign of strength, not weakness, according to Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.

Speaking on an episode of Natalie Brunell’s «Coin Stories» podcast released Friday, Saylor argued that the market is in a consolidation phase as long-time holders sell portions of their stacks and institutions prepare for bigger allocations. “If you zoom out and look at the one-year chart, bitcoin is up 99%,” he said. “The volatility is coming out of the asset — that’s a really good sign.”

Saylor described the current environment as one where early adopters who bought bitcoin at single-digit prices are selling modest amounts to fund real-world needs, such as housing or tuition.

He likened it to employees of a high-growth startup liquidating stock options, not as a loss of faith but as a natural step toward maturity. That process, he said, is paving the way for corporations and large funds to enter once volatility falls.

He dismissed concerns that bitcoin’s lack of cash flows makes it inferior to traditional investments, pointing out that many valuable assets — from land to gold to art — also lack income streams.

“The perfect money has no cash flows,” he said, adding that institutions anchored in decades of equity-and-bond frameworks have been slow to adapt but will eventually be forced to rethink.

Going beyond store of value

A central theme of the conversation was Strategy’s push to reengineer credit markets by using bitcoin as collateral, moving beyond the simple store-of-value narrative.

Saylor said conventional bonds are “yield-starved” and under-collateralized, while bitcoin-backed instruments can be structured to offer higher yields and lower risk.

He outlined the firm’s suite of preferred-stock products — Strike, Strife, Stride, and Stretch — which are designed to provide investors with yields of up to 12% while being heavily over-collateralized with bitcoin.

By doing so, Saylor argued, the company is giving bitcoin cash-flow-like qualities, allowing it to slot into both credit and equity indexes. “We’re giving bitcoin cash flow,” he said, framing it as a way to broaden institutional adoption and draw more capital into the ecosystem.

The S&P 500 question

Saylor also addressed why Strategy has yet to be included in the S&P 500 despite its scale and profitability.

He said the firm only became eligible this year following changes in accounting rules and noted that Tesla also waited beyond its first quarter of eligibility. He expects eventual inclusion as the market grows more comfortable with the bitcoin treasury model, which he dates to late 2024.

Transformative years

Looking ahead, Saylor portrayed the rise of bitcoin treasury companies as analogous to the early days of the petrochemical industry, with multiple products, business models, and fortunes emerging in a chaotic but transformative decade.

He predicted bitcoin would continue to appreciate at an average rate near 29% annually over the next two decades, fueling new forms of credit and equity instruments.

In closing, he struck an optimistic tone about both bitcoin and society more broadly, saying much of today’s online toxicity is amplified by bots and paid campaigns rather than genuine discontent.

“Bitcoin is a peaceful, fair, and equitable way for us to settle our differences,” he said. “As everyone embraces it, peace will spread, equity will spread, fairness will spread.”