Strategy Is Still a Major Risk for Bitcoin, says Mike Green
Mike Green says Strategy’s levered Bitcoin bet remains a major risk if Bitcoin keeps falling
By: Zack Guzman
July 10, 2026
Bitcoin’s latest slide has revived a question that has been sitting beneath the surface of the market for months: How much of Bitcoin’s support is actually Bitcoin demand — and how much of it is tied to Strategy’s ability to keep buying?
For Mike Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, the answer remains one of the biggest unresolved risks in crypto.
Green has been warning that Michael Saylor's plans to issue debt to acquire more Bitcoing at Strategy is not simply a bullish corporate treasury bet. In his view, it is levered exposure to a highly volatile asset that only works as long as Bitcoin keeps rising, but becomes increasingly fragile when the price moves the other way. And with Bitcoin moving closer to $60,000 after trading near $75,000 when Green last joined Coinage, he says the underlying risk has not gone away.
“Nothing has changed,” Green told Coinage this week. “He has still adopted an extraordinary levered exposure. He will always need to sell Bitcoin in order to obtain liquidity. Unless Bitcoin rises enough that he can increase his borrowing capacity against it.”
That is the problem Green has been trying to highlight. Strategy’s Bitcoin position is often treated by the market as a simple accumulation story: Michael Saylor buys Bitcoin, Strategy raises capital, the company buys more Bitcoin, and the cycle reinforces itself as long as the price goes up. But Green argues that the same structure can become dangerous in reverse.
When Bitcoin falls, Strategy’s equity can fall harder. When its equity falls, its ability to raise additional capital can become more constrained. And if liquidity needs rise while borrowing capacity falls, the company’s own Bitcoin holdings can become the only source of cash left on the table.
“He is running a levered exposure to a highly volatile asset,” Green said, “and the volatility drag will ultimately eat this company. The only way it is saved is if Bitcoin goes to extraordinary new highs.”
That is what makes Strategy more than just another public company with a Bitcoin treasury. It has become one of the most important feedback loops in the Bitcoin market itself.
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Last month, Strategy CEO Phong Le told Coinage he was confident the company could weather the storm that has now essentially backed it into the corner of selling Bitcoin to continue extending the runway it needs to pay dividends to preferred shareholders.
Today, Strategy isn't simply holding Bitcoin. It has common shareholders, preferred shareholders, debt investors, and a growing collection of Bitcoin-linked financial products. Those stakeholders, according to Le, want reassurance that Strategy can actively manage its balance sheet when necessary.
"We said, okay, let's sell it just to show people that we are willing to sell our Bitcoin," Le said. But since the first sale, Bitcoin has retreated roughly 15% and Strategy shares have fallen by more than 40%.
Meanwhile, Green's more general criticism of Bitcoin is more blunt. He sees the asset as having evolved from an attempted peer-to-peer payment system into a scarcity-based speculative vehicle, with supporters still arguing that it could eventually become the foundation for a new monetary system. To Green, that leap has never made sense.
“The idea that you can actually create a peer to peer payment system and then suddenly morph that into a speculative vehicle simply on the basis of scarcity, that ultimately will become the backing of a new monetary system that fiat governments all over the world are going to shove aside their existing taxing capability to accept is just patently absurd,” Green said.
For Bitcoin bulls, the bet is that Saylor is right and Bitcoin’s long-term appreciation will overwhelm every short-term concern. For Green, that is not an investment thesis so much as a wager on a volatile asset wrapped in a corporate leverage machine.
The danger is not just that Strategy owns Bitcoin. The danger is that Bitcoin may now depend, in part, on Strategy continuing to own more.
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