Unchained - Why Bitcoin's Lack of Yield Keeps Straining Its Treasury Companies

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital, breaks down why Bitcoin's lack of native yield puts constant pressure on treasury companies, and makes the case that Michael Saylor's playbook is evolving rather than breaking. Host: Steven Ehrlich, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview and Head of Research at Sharplink Guest: David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital This clip is from a longer conversation on Strategy's Stretch rescue plan and Bitcoin's options market. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/VwBxQTcJeXc  New Bits + Bips interviews are posted regularly - subscribe to catch the next one. Sponsor: 👉 Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). Chapters: 🎙️ 00:00 A new Citi report reveals why retail's crypto excitement has quietly collapsed 📉 00:17 Retail's bet on the Mag Seven just hit a multiyear low 😨 01:15 The unsettling reason retail fears Saylor becoming Bitcoin's buyer of last resort 🃏 01:44 Revisiting Saylor's infamous "sell your organs before your Bitcoin" line 🪙 02:34 The yield problem: why Bitcoin generates nothing, while Ethereum and Solana pay 📈 03:06 David on covered calls and the fast rise of synthetic yield strategies 🏛️ 04:39 Saylor, the OG who wrote the playbook on institutional Bitcoin accumulation ⚓ 06:28 Why David says Strategy is quietly weathering the storm better than anyone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yeah, those are all really good points. And it's, I'm trying to think about how I want to address this because, I mean, there's a few different ways to take it. I mean, for one, I mean, as you've talked about, and I've mentioned over my last few shows, it's just a really difficult environment for crypto. I think Citi had had a report that came out. It must have been this week talking about specifically pointing out how retail participation, especially in terms of like the Mag 7 stocks, is at a multi-year low.

And it wasn't definitive saying they're all rolling out of stocks, but one of the points that was made is that there's a lot of other opportunities to kind of get that sort of like very risk-laden exposure. I mean, you can do the AI stocks. You can go to the stocks that are basically the suppliers to those AI firms. They didn't discount the fact that maybe some of these retail users were moving into diversified ETFs, which is not necessarily able to track. But it really kind of showed how there's the retail enthusiasm is gone. And that's particularly important for crypto.

And then just the added fear, the psychological importance of strategy, where many people saw it as sort of almost like I've heard a refer to as like Michael Saler as CryptoCentral Banker in a way or the buyer of last resort. And if that buyer suddenly becoming a seller, potentially at size, I mean, that's an order of magnitude more worrisome in the eyes. of a retail investor that doesn't understand everything, then even if they're just going to pause their purchases for a while. I do agree with what you said.

I mean, any smart business should always leave themselves and out. I mean, obviously saying like sell organs before selling your Bitcoin was some tongue-in-cheek, and I think most people probably assumed it as such. But you do need to have a business that can withstand different market cycles. The one question that I still come up with, though, and I want to ask you about this, it just kind of goes to the core of the business model of these dads that do have like a diversified type of cap table, cap stack. And in particular ones with Bitcoin that offer prefers, it's a non-yield-bearing asset. So you have to find some way to financialize the cash that you're going to pay for it.

I mean, Ethereum is yield-bearing. Salana is yield-bearing. I mean, the native yields on those assets isn't by themselves enough to cover the dividends that. these things are paying anyway, but goal, I'm sorry, maybe that was a 40-in slip. Bitcoin generates no native yield. So there's always going to be this flywheel up or down that has to be managed.

How do you think about that in a market like this? Yeah, no, that's a great point. And while there's, yeah, there's many ways I can take this. The one thing I would say, and this is just detaching a little bit from the strategy conversation, I actually put out a long paper on this about how folks have been using options to generate synthetic yield. So strategies like covert call selling. I wrote a very long paper on this trying to show what are the type of results or the consistency of positive yields

that you are able to implement in a typical or traditional covert call selling strategy. And this is interesting. and we have seen a bunch of market participants take advantage of these types of strategies. But in this case, yes, you are right. Bitcoin doesn't have a native deal, so it is a lot different the strategy that a Bitcoin Treasury company will implement

versus what an Ethereum or Solana or Hype Treasury company. I fully agree with that. The other thing I would highlight, though, is that Bitcoin might have some advantages, right? So if you think about strategy, I mean, they have the option. They're probably one of the only, if not the only company that can issue preferred, right, because they have an active and liquid options chain that allows them, I'm sorry, converts in order to do those.

They have enough market gravitas and in order to issue ATM equity. and also all these preferred instruments. The thing you want to say, though, is I want to say two things here about your commentary, which was very interesting. Number one is, I think it's important to keep in mind that Saylor was the OG in this whole Bitcoin, let's say, institutional Bitcoin accumulation strategy. And I think sometimes these narratives, they develop much more iteratively than actually having being set in stone from day zero.

I think over time, we're all learning that maybe an institutional Bitcoin accumulation strategy can look more a lot like active management instead of looking much more like the huddle forever that maybe a lot of folks or like maybe a lot of us will do in our PA. So I think that's fine. I'm fine with the strategy evolving over time or the narrative evolving over time. And I think that is part of the process. That is part of being a pioneer in these types of strategies that have been so successful for the past many years.

Yeah, that's what I would say. And then on top of Bitcoin specifically, I think one thing to keep in mind is that holders of, of stretch or holders of probably any part of the MSTR capital stack are probably folks who are betting that Bitcoin will succeed. And basically the type of analysis that they need to do is what do they think is the return profile that Bitcoin will have in the future? What is the type of risk management that the company is doing? How strong the balance sheet is?

To storm the inevitable, more difficult times that. we're going to have, like the ones that we're seeing today, and that's basically the risk that they need to underwrite. I think so far, micro-strategy or strategy has been doing a good job in terms of weathering that storm. Of course, in hindsight, it's always easier. It's always easy to criticize without being there. But I think they've been reacting quickly.

They've been reacting boldly. And we're starting to see the market normalized. Of course, these things don't happen all of a sudden. they're not going to happen overnight, but I think we're seeing some of that. If you hold crypto on your phone, your biggest vulnerability isn't your wallet. It's your carrier. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have been breached again and again. And SIM swaps are still one of the easiest ways for attackers to drain accounts.

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