Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a CNBC interview on Friday that he remains bullish on bitcoin, but that Michael Saylor’s approach to funding bitcoin purchases has hurt the broader crypto market, as the preferred shares at the center of Strategy’s model fell to an all-time low.
“Financial engineering does not create long-term value,” Garlinghouse said, arguing that the lasting value of any digital asset comes from its utility. “The Michael Saylor team didn’t focus on the right things and that has hurt the market as a whole.”
He separated that from his opinion on the asset itself, saying he is still bullish on bitcoin.
Garlinghouse’s target was the machine Strategy used to accumulate bitcoins. For about a year, the company has issued preferred stock, a class of stock that pays a fixed dividend, to raise cash for more bitcoins.
Its STRC stock carries an annual dividend of 11.5% and is designed to trade near $100. Garlinghouse noted that STRC is trading about 25% below that level as a “damning indictment” of the strategy.
