Michael Saylor outlines his Bitcoin expectations for 2026
In a recent interview, Michael Saylor shared an expansive outlook on Bitcoin’s trajectory heading into 2026. According to him, Bitcoin is entering a structural shift fueled not by speculation, but by banks, credit markets, and corporate finance integrating BTC at scale.
Saylor argues that 2025–2026 marks the first true institutional cycle for Bitcoin, where traditional financial systems begin treating BTC as productive, bankable digital capital.
Banks are preparing to issue BTC-backed credit
Saylor says the biggest change happening behind the scenes is that banks are now willing to hold Bitcoin and use it as collateral for issuing loans.
He claims that:
– around half of major U.S. banks are already working with Bitcoin ETF infrastructure
– many are preparing to accept BTC as collateral
– traditional brokers and custodians are beginning to integrate Bitcoin more deeply
As this trend accelerates, Saylor believes Bitcoin will gain a new layer of demand and liquidity that simply didn’t exist in previous cycles.
The halving is no longer the primary driver
Saylor argues that the halving has become less influential as the market’s scale increases. Daily Bitcoin liquidity now reaches tens of billions of dollars.
The next halving will reduce supply by about 20 million dollars per day — a small fraction compared to the roughly 50 billion dollars in daily liquidity.
Saylor says the new dominant catalysts are:
– BTC-backed credit
– derivative markets
– participation from regulated financial institutions
Corporations holding Bitcoin are shaping a new trend
Saylor highlights that MicroStrategy helped spark a wave of corporate Bitcoin adoption. Today, more than 200 companies hold BTC on their balance sheets.
His own strategy evolved from simple accumulation to issuing public debt backed by Bitcoin — a model he expects more firms to adopt.
According to Saylor, Bitcoin allows corporations to hold high-quality digital capital and use it productively, rather than letting cash reserves depreciate.
Digital credit becomes the new “corporate bond”
One of Saylor’s boldest predictions is the rise of digital credit instruments built on Bitcoin.
He describes the ideal product as:
– a yield of around 10 percent
– compared to a money-market rate of 4 percent
– backed by Bitcoin as collateral
– delivering 2–4x higher attractiveness than traditional corporate bonds
In his view, BTC enables a new class of fixed-income instruments that outperform legacy financial products.
Bitcoin’s role vs stablecoins and altcoin networks
Saylor divides the digital asset landscape into two clear categories:
– Bitcoin as digital capital
– everything else — stablecoins, tokenization, PoS networks — as digital finance
Stablecoins, he argues, compete with banking networks, not with Bitcoin. Their success actually strengthens the dollar.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin competes with gold, real estate, and equities as a long-term store of value.
These two sectors grow together, but serve different functions.
Regulation and institutional alignment in 2025–2026
Saylor says this will be the first cycle where regulators, government institutions and major financial entities align behind Bitcoin:
– support from the President and Treasury
– SEC and CFTC clarity
– fair value accounting rules
– upcoming CLARITY legislation for tokenization and DeFi
He believes this alignment reduces previous regulatory uncertainty and creates a structural advantage for public companies holding BTC.
What 2026 could look like for Bitcoin
According to Saylor, the next year will bring:
– more publicly traded companies adding BTC and digital assets to their balance sheets
– banks issuing Bitcoin-backed loans at scale
– an estimated 2 trillion dollars of crypto collateral entering traditional finance
– a chain reaction where every new institution adopting Bitcoin pulls others into the ecosystem
Saylor frames this not as a speculative phase, but as the beginning of Bitcoin’s integration into global banking and corporate finance.
