Episode notes
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan has identified "Strategy" (the corporate entity led by Michael Saylor) as the single biggest driver of Bitcoin’s recent 20% rally. While spot ETFs have seen strong inflows ($3.8 billion since March 1), Strategy has significantly outpaced them, adding $7.2 billion in BTC over the last eight weeks alone. This massive buying spree is funded by the issuance of STRC, a perpetual preferred stock offering an 11.5% dividend yield. Hougan notes that with junk bonds yielding less than 7%, STRC has become an incredibly attractive "yield-play" for institutional investors, effectively creating a "flywheel" that allows the company to continue buying Bitcoin at a scale that now exceeds the holdings of the world’s largest Bitcoin fund, BlackRock’s IBIT.