The Strategy & Strive vs bitcoin in cold storage debate is classic bear market tribalism. In bitcoin land, when the price is down 50% for a year or so, we start to eat each other alive. The debate is about whether the common stock of MSTR and ASST is a safe investment for those looking for bitcoin price exposure, and an argument about how it should not replace bitcoin in cold storage. I completely agree with the concerns. I hold none of these stonks. I hold no stonks at all. It is hard to underwrite the series of counterparties involved in owning stonks. For 99.99% of folks, there is no second best to bitcoin in cold storage. However, MSTR common, ASST common, STRC, SATA, and the other preferred structures may all be interesting securities for folks who want different flavors of exposure. Some may outperform bitcoin. Some may underperform badly. That is fine. But none of them are bitcoin.
Why did Strategy sell 32 bitcoin just to buy 1500+ the following week? The theory is that they are proving to the market that they can sell their hoard of bitcoin if necessary, so that ratings agencies will stop valuing the bitcoin on their balance sheet at zero. That makes sense to me, but let’s see if it works.
The signal being drowned out is the simplest one: bitcoin’s value proposition is not yield, leverage, mNAV, preferred coverage, or daily dividends. It is fixed supply, permissionless settlement, censorship resistance, and the ability to hold an asset outside a corporate issuer, outside a bank, and outside a government’s discretion.