Michael Saylor and Strategy weren’t focused on the right features of bitcoin and how to build their own strategy around it, which is now hurting the overall cryptocurrency market, said Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.
In a recent interview with CNBC, he doubled down that the long-term value of a certain asset is its utility, not just speculative products made to accumulate it, referring to Strategy’s STRC.
They Hurt the Market
Ever since Strategy conducted its first BTC sale in four years by the end of May, it has become a hot topic of discussion within the cryptocurrency community despite its subsequent purchases, which were a lot larger. The latest to weigh in on the matter was Ripple’s CEO, who noted that Strategy’s purchases had “added some excitement on the way up and now that’s compounding on the way down as well.”
He focused on STRC, the company’s Stretch stock, which is used to raise funds by promising high yields, and deploy the proceeds to accumulate more bitcoin. Although Saylor has refrained from calling it leverage, Garlinghouse believes that’s exactly what it is, and the market has started to see how it can compound negatively when BTC’s price corrects.
STRC continues to trade 25% below its par price of $100, which Garlinghouse believes is a “pretty damning indictment, and I don’t think it has helped the market.” He added that creating long-term value should be the company’s focus, while “financial engineering” doesn’t.
“Long-term value of any digital asset is going to be driven by utility. If it’s solving a problem at scale for real customers, you are going to see liquidity, you are going to see demand, you are going to see trust in that asset. Those things compound in a positive way.”
He concluded that he remains bullish on bitcoin and believes investors should be greedy in the current market environment, given the asset’s 50%+ correction from its October 2025 top.
XRP in Focus
After commenting on how BTC should act as digital gold and how much easier it would be to move funds with Bitcoin rather than the precious metal, Garlinghouse turned his attention to Ripple’s native cross-border token and its utility. He explained that XRP’s utility is focused on payments and “leveraging the speed and efficiency of that blockchain for institutions.”
He added that the company has seen “tremendous demand” by clearing $16 trillion in payments in 2025 alone in the prime brokerage business, probably through acquisitions.
“Ripple’s strategy from the beginning has been how to bring traditional finance into the modern architecture of blockchain. And now, through some acquisitions, we have a tremendous opportunity to bring that in.”
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