Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized Michael Saylor’s leveraged Bitcoin (BTC) strategy while saying he remains bullish on BTC.
Key Points:
- Garlinghouse called Saylor’s leveraged Bitcoin model a “damning indictment.”
- Strategy’s STRC preferred stock traded near $74, about 26% below par value.
- Ripple’s CEO said long-term crypto value depends on utility, not financial engineering.
Bitcoin Strategy
Garlinghouse focused his criticism on Strategy and its STRC perpetual preferred stock, which traded near $74 when he made the remarks.
That price placed STRC about 26% below its $100 par value, as investors weighed Strategy’s expanding financial obligations and the durability of its capital structure.
Annualized dividend payments tied to STRC have climbed to about $1.2 billion, while the company’s dividend coverage window has narrowed from more than seven years to roughly 14 months.
Strategy also sold 32 Bitcoin in late May to fund STRC dividend payments, marking the first time the company liquidated BTC to meet financial obligations. Garlinghouse separated that structure from his broader view of Bitcoin, saying his long-term bullish stance on the asset has not changed.
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Ripple Utility
Garlinghouse said the problem is not Bitcoin itself, but the use of leverage to accumulate it without creating direct economic utility.
“Financial engineering does not drive long-term value… long-term value of any digital asset is going to be driven by utility.”
That argument tracks Ripple’s own positioning, as the company points to XRP (XRP) cross-border payment infrastructure as an alternative to debt-funded treasury accumulation.
Ripple also released its 2025 impact report this week, saying it donated more than $70 million during the year and used RLUSD (RLUSD) and XRP Ledger technology in small business lending, humanitarian aid and water access programs.
The company said more than $53 million reached underserved small business owners through its partnership with Accion Opportunity Fund. The comments land as Bitcoin treasury adoption has become a major corporate theme in 2026, with Strategy holding more than 843,000 BTC, or about 76% of all Bitcoin on public company balance sheets.
Strategy’s pressure has also widened beyond STRC, since the company faces a securities investigation opened earlier in 2026, adding regulatory scrutiny to a model already tested by dividend demands and Bitcoin-linked volatility.
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