Bitcoin transformed into an institutional asset: from Strategy's corporate strategy to Wyoming's state reserves

The Bitcoin community is witnessing a paradigm shift regarding the role of the most important digital asset. At the Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu Dhabi, Michael Saylor, Chairman of Strategy, articulated a vision positioning Bitcoin not as a circulating currency but as a strategic resource to be structured through complex financial instruments. This approach has sparked heated debates among economists, particularly with Saifedean Ammous, who addressed Saylor’s theses on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction show.

Saylor’s Thesis: Bitcoin as a Financial Commodity

Saylor presented Bitcoin as a raw material similar to crude oil, asserting that its true utility emerges when it is “refined” into various financial products. According to this logic, Strategy acts as an intermediary that transforms the raw asset into securities accessible to traditional investors. The company has accumulated 671,268 Bitcoin by December 15, representing 3.2% of the total global supply and surpassing 12 times the holdings of the second-largest corporate holder.

Strategy has invested a total of $50 billion to acquire these Bitcoins through 90 successive transactions from Q3 2020, with an average purchase price of about $75,000 per unit. The current net value of these assets reaches $60 billion. The company has used sophisticated mechanisms such as convertible senior bonds and perpetual preferred shares to finance its accumulation strategy, attracting institutional investors including Norges Bank Investment Management, which invested $500 million in Strategy shares in the second half of 2024.

The Institutional Counterbalance: States’ Bitcoin Reserve Plans

Alongside corporate moves, the push toward state Bitcoin reserves has accelerated significantly. Fifteen U.S. states announced plans to establish Bitcoin reserves in early 2025, with Pennsylvania leading the initiative by introducing the first state bill in November 2024. States like Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Wyoming have adopted similar legislation, positioning Wyoming as an emerging hub for Bitcoin strategy at the government level.

This dual movement—corporate acquisitions by Strategy and state reserves—suggests that Bitcoin is evolving from a simple digital currency to a tool for governance of capital and monetary policy at the institutional level.

The Debate on Bitcoin’s Monetary Properties

Ammous challenged Saylor’s view, arguing that the financial mechanisms used by Strategy do not alter Bitcoin’s fundamental monetary properties. For Ammous, the issue remains mainly academic since the intrinsic properties of the asset remain unchanged regardless of the vehicle structure used.

The economist highlighted that the current global monetary system expands the money supply by 7% to 15% annually, encouraging widespread debt. In this context, Bitcoin could emerge as an asset for recapitalization for entities seeking access to credit on favorable terms. According to Ammous, once the number of direct Bitcoin holders increases significantly, the asset will naturally assume the function of a true currency, regardless of the financial structures built around it.

Both approaches—Saylor’s focus on financial sophistication and Ammous’s on direct monetization—reflect the growing complexity of Bitcoin’s role in the global economy, transitioning from a cryptographic experiment to a key player in private and public capital accumulation strategies.