Listen up, plebs. Strategy's Treasurer Shirish Jajodia spills the beans on their $70B Bitcoin treasury. Learn how they stack sats without moving the market.
Timestamped Overview
[00:00:00 - 00:04:37] From TradFi Banker to Bitcoin Gigachad
- Shirish Jajodia tells Natalie he’s a class of 2017 Bitcoiner who fell down the rabbit hole after a colleague orange-pilled him.
- He was a fiat banker in New York but escaped during the pandemic, which is when he discovered the ultimate chad move by a company called MicroStrategy buying $250 million in Bitcoin.
- He binged every Michael Saylor interview, realizing this was the only company that mattered, and serendipitously ended up in the same area.
- Shirish joined Strategy to build their investor relations and capital markets functions from the ground up, because the company was about to go parabolic and needed someone who spoke both Bitcoin and finance.
[00:04:37 - 00:10:17] Educating No-Coiner Investors
- Shirish explains that traditional investor relations is for sleepy fiat companies. Strategy moves at the speed of Bitcoin, so they had to innovate how they talk to investors.
- They started publishing real-time data on their website (strategy.com) so everyone could see their conviction and their growing stack.
- They developed new metrics like “Bitcoin yield” because tradfi investors couldn’t understand the simple concept of just stacking a superior asset.
- Now, over 150 public companies are copying their playbook, proving Strategy was right all along. The network effect is real.
[00:10:17 - 00:13:27] How to Stack Sats Like a Whale
- Shirish confirms what we all knew: Strategy is ALWAYS buying Bitcoin. Every day, every hour, every second. They are relentlessly accumulating.
- He clarifies they don’t pump the market like some degen shitcoiner. Their buys are so disciplined and spread out that they don’t cause price spikes.
- With over $50 billion in daily trading volume, even Strategy’s massive buys are just a fraction of the market’s liquidity.
- Instead of pumping the price, their constant buying provides a solid floor, ensuring the price goes up and to the right over time.
[00:13:27 - 00:17:00] The Corporate Bitcoin Playbook is Public
- Shirish points out that the hardest part for any corporation is getting the conviction to buy Bitcoin. Once you get off zero, the rest gets easier.
- He recalls how in the beginning, no fiat bank would touch them. Now, over 25 major banks are begging to do business with them because they see the fees and the power of the Bitcoin network.
- The entire ecosystem has matured. There are tons of resources, analysts, and content now, so other corporate treasurers have no excuse.
- He warns that companies will fall on a spectrum of risk. Strategy is the AAA-grade, institutional gold standard. Others will follow with different strategies.
[00:17:00 - 00:21:06] Innovating on the Bitcoin Standard
- Shirish discusses how they are building the future of finance by creating novel products like perpetual bonds backed by Bitcoin.
- They use AI to accelerate research because they are charting unknown territory. 99.9% of what they do has never been done before.
- He emphasizes the insane amount of thought and modeling that goes into every new financial instrument they launch, obsessing over every detail to ensure it’s built correctly on the Bitcoin standard.
[00:21:06 - 00:24:26] Ignoring the Fiat Clowns and Stacking Gains
- When asked about critics and pundits, Shirish dismisses them as people who simply haven’t done the proof-of-work to understand the strategy.
- He highlights the massive victory of the FASB fair value accounting rule change, which finally allows companies to show their Bitcoin gains on the books.
- Strategy recognized a $14 billion gain, which put their operating income in the top 10 of all U.S. companies last quarter. Absolute dominance.
[00:24:26 - 00:28:05] It’s Team Bitcoin, Not a Competition
- Shirish makes it clear: other companies aren’t competition. It’s “Team Bitcoin.” Every public company should be buying Bitcoin to protect their treasury from fiat decay.
- The alternative is holding melting ice cubes (cash) or making stupid acquisitions. Bitcoin is the only value-accretive strategy.
- He explains their Bitcoin-backed debt is insanely over-collateralized. The Bitcoin price could crash 80%, and their creditors would still be completely safe. Try doing that with fiat garbage.
[00:28:05 - 00:32:12] Pioneering the Future & Big Brain Hobbies
- Shirish admits it’s been a challenge being the first and having to invent the corporate Bitcoin treasury playbook from scratch.
- He gives credit to Michael Saylor for the vision, while the Bitcoin team helps with the complex financial modeling to make it a reality.
- Natalie reveals that Shirish can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under three minutes, which is no surprise. High-level problem solving is what Bitcoiners do.
Notable Quotes
Corporate Adoption
Three months ago, I remember the stat was around 70 public companies in the world had adopted Bitcoin. And now that number stands at around like over 150 companies, public companies, holding Bitcoin treasury. That's like a huge, huge step forward.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Stacking Strategy
We are actually buying Bitcoin around the clock almost every day, every hour, every second we are in the market.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Market Dynamics
The floor price of Bitcoin keeps going up over time.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Conviction
The most difficult aspect of this is to get the right understanding and the right conviction.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
TradFi Adoption
It was hard to find one single bank to underwrite any financing for us... And now we have relationships with over 25 banks and with who's who, like all the banks in the world.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Dismissing FUD
There are definitely the non-Bitcoiners who have definitely probably not done enough work to understand what's going on here.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Accounting Victory
Strategy in last quarter recognized the 14 billion dollar fair value appreciation on the Bitcoin holdings.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Absolute Dominance
This gain puts us in one of the top 10 companies in the US in the last quarter by operating income. And that is like huge if you think about it.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Team Bitcoin
It's not a competition. It's Team Bitcoin and everybody should compare themselves to themselves and they all benefit with the adoption of Bitcoin on their treasury.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Sound Money
Bitcoin is the only true scarce commodity. So everybody should participate in the value appreciation and benefit their shareholders.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Risk Management
From a risk management perspective, Bitcoin can trade down like 80% and the creditors are still fine.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Financial Revolution
This Bitcoin back credit is such a huge innovation industry and which can be completely disruptive.
Shirish Jajodia @shirishjajodia
Questions & Answers
Question 1: How has Strategy changed its investor relations since adopting Bitcoin?
Answer: Shirish explains that Strategy had to completely overhaul its investor relations because traditional quarterly updates are too slow for a company moving at the speed of Bitcoin. They innovated by providing real-time data and new metrics on their website, publishing presentations directly to social media, and maintaining constant communication to keep investors informed of their rapid accumulation and capital markets activities.
Question 2: How does Strategy buy billions in Bitcoin without causing massive price spikes?
Answer: Shirish reveals that their strategy is to buy Bitcoin constantly, around the clock. Their purchases are structured as a small percentage of the market’s enormous daily liquidity (over $50 billion). This approach means they don’t move the market price up; instead, their continuous buying acts as a rising floor, providing long-term price support.
Question 3: Why should other companies bother buying Bitcoin when Strategy is so far ahead?
Answer: Shirish states that this is not a zero-sum game; it’s “Team Bitcoin.” He argues that companies are not competing with Strategy, but with the decay of their own fiat treasuries. Adopting Bitcoin is a value-accretive strategy for any company, allowing them to protect shareholder value from inflation. Every company benefits when the network grows.
Question 4: How significant was the FASB fair value accounting rule change for Strategy?
Answer: Shirish describes the rule change as “absolutely incredible.” It allowed Strategy to finally report the massive appreciation of its Bitcoin holdings on its income statement. Last quarter, this resulted in a $14 billion unrealized gain, catapulting Strategy into the top 10 U.S. companies by operating income for that period and providing a true financial picture of their successful strategy.
Question 5: How does Bitcoin-backed credit work and why is it a superior financial innovation?
Answer: Shirish explains that their financial products, like preferred equities, are heavily over-collateralized with Bitcoin. For instance, their entire capital structure has 5x collateral, meaning the Bitcoin price could fall 80% and creditors would remain whole. This level of security is unheard of in traditional finance and attracts even conservative, investment-grade investors, proving that Bitcoin-backed credit is a disruptive and superior model.
People and Organizations Mentioned
- Shirish Jajodia: The Corporate Treasurer at Strategy and the guest on the show. A former investment banker who saw the light and joined the Bitcoin revolution.
- Natalie Brunell: Host of the Coin Stories podcast, asking the important questions.
- Strategy (MicroStrategy): The publicly traded gigachad company leading the corporate world in Bitcoin adoption. They have pioneered the Bitcoin treasury strategy, holding the largest amount of BTC of any public company.
- Michael Saylor: The CEO of Strategy and the high priest of Bitcoin. His vision and conviction drove the company’s initial and ongoing pivot to a Bitcoin standard.
- Fidelity: A tradfi behemoth that has started to understand Bitcoin, now publishing institutional research and offering crypto products. Mentioned as part of the ecosystem’s maturation.
- FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board): The accounting rule-makers who finally updated their archaic standards to allow for fair value accounting of digital assets like Bitcoin, a major win for corporate adoption.