Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, labeled Michael Saylor’s leveraged Bitcoin model a “damning indictment”, pointing to MicroStrategy’s preferred stock, which is trading well below its $100 par value.
Garlinghouse reiterated his long-term bullishness on Bitcoin BTCUSD, but drew a clear line between his view on the asset and the financing structure Saylor has built around it.
Saylor’s Preferred Stock Under Pressure
Strategy’s STRC perpetual preferred stock traded around $74 at the time of Garlinghouse’s remarks. That placed it roughly 26% below its $100 par value. The discount has widened throughout 2026 as the market weighed Strategy’s growing financial obligations.
Annualized dividend payments tied to STRC have climbed to approximately $1.2 billion. More strikingly, Strategy’s dividend coverage window has narrowed from more than seven years to roughly 14 months.
Questions about whether STRC can remain viable under sustained pressure have intensified among investors.
Strategy also sold 32 Bitcoin in late May to fund STRC dividend payments. This marked the first time the company liquidated any BTC to service its financial obligations. The move drew scrutiny from analysts monitoring its capital structure.
Garlinghouse Argues Utility Drives Value
Garlinghouse’s critique targets the gap between financial engineering and long-term asset value. In his view, Saylor’s borrow-to-buy approach generates market pressure without creating the utility that sustains it.
“Financial engineering does not drive long-term value… long-term value of any digital asset is going to be driven by utility.”