MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor has backed a proposal to establish a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” an initiative backed by President-elect Donald Trump.
Saylor’s “Digital Assets Framework” outlines strategies to foster the growth of the sector, establish compliance standards, and protect the rights of cryptocurrency holders and companies. According to Saylor, the implementation of these measures will increase economic prosperity, strengthen the global dominance of the US dollar, and help tackle national debt.
In the proposal, Saylor highlighted the potential of digital assets to fuel a “capital markets renaissance,” unlocking trillions in wealth and empowering millions of businesses.
“By establishing a clear taxonomy, a legitimate rights-based framework, and practical compliance obligations, the United States can lead the global digital economy,” Saylor wrote.
Under Saylor’s leadership, MicroStrategy has become the largest institutional holder of Bitcoin, with an estimated $42.6 billion worth of stock. Despite being known as a Bitcoin maximalist, Saylor’s framework includes proposals for regulating other digital assets, classifying them as commodities, securities or tokens based on their characteristics.
Saylor's taxonomy divides digital assets into different classes:
- Digital Commodities: Assets with no issuer and backed by digital power (e.g. Bitcoin).
- Digital Securities: Tokenized forms of equity or debt.
- Digital Currencies: Fiat-backed tokens.
- Digital Tokens: Unique categories such as NFTs and physical asset-backed tokens (e.g. gold or oil), as well as fungible tokens with a specific utility.
The framework also introduces a “rights and responsibilities” model for issuers, exchanges and participants that emphasizes transparency, accountability and compliance with local laws.
Saylor also advocates reducing the costs of issuing and storing digital assets. By limiting compliance expenses to 1% of a firm’s assets under management, Saylor claims the cost of issuing a token could drop from millions of dollars to as little as $10,000.
One of the proposal’s core ideas, which has gained traction among crypto-friendly lawmakers like Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Trump, is the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve. Saylor argues that such a reserve could generate between $16 trillion and $81 trillion in wealth and significantly ease the $36 trillion national debt.
*This is not investment advice.
