Strategy Inc. (MSTR) is back in the crosshairs after Peter Schiff questioned the logic behind the company's relentless Bitcoin (BTC) purchases. His issue? Strategy's shares are trading below the value of its crypto holdings, which makes continuing to buy Bitcoin a head-scratcher if you care about shareholder value.
The Math That Doesn't Add Up
Schiff laid out his case in a post on X, pointing out that when your stock trades at a discount to net asset value, the playbook should flip. If Michael Saylor actually wanted to maximize value for shareholders, Schiff argues, Strategy would sell some Bitcoin and use the cash to buy back its own undervalued shares. That would increase the amount of Bitcoin owned per share without spending another dime on crypto.
Instead, Saylor keeps buying more Bitcoin, which Schiff says reveals his true priority: propping up Bitcoin's price rather than optimizing equity value. It's a critique that's been simmering for years, but it hits different when the stock is trading below what the Bitcoin holdings are worth.
Saylor Isn't Interested in Short-Term Optimization
Michael Saylor has never pretended otherwise. He's repeatedly stated that Strategy's mission is long-term Bitcoin accumulation, period. Short-term equity optimization isn't the goal. Bitcoin is the company's primary treasury asset, and in Saylor's view, whether MSTR trades at a premium or discount to its holdings is just noise that fluctuates across market cycles.
Strategy has kept buying Bitcoin through rallies, crashes, and everything in between. The company is now the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, and Saylor shows no signs of wavering despite ongoing criticism from traditional finance skeptics like Schiff.
Quantum Computing Proposal Adds Fuel to the Fire
As if the NAV debate wasn't enough, Saylor stirred up another controversy this week with comments about quantum computing threats to Bitcoin. In a separate post on X, he floated the idea that the Bitcoin network could eventually upgrade through a hard fork that freezes quantum-vulnerable pay-to-public-key outputs. That includes early wallets linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.
According to Protos, Saylor argued this change would strengthen security and reduce supply. But the proposal immediately drew backlash from developers and users who warned about the technical risks and governance nightmare it would create. Critics pointed out that freezing coins would represent a major intervention in Bitcoin's monetary history, something that goes against the ethos of immutability that many Bitcoin supporters hold sacred.
Two Visions of What Bitcoin Should Be
These twin controversies highlight the fundamental divide between Bitcoin maximalists and their critics. Schiff's argument is rooted in capital allocation efficiency and traditional corporate finance logic. If your stock is cheap relative to what you own, buy it back. It's Finance 101.
Saylor, on the other hand, frames Bitcoin as a long-term monetary asset whose value transcends near-term equity pricing concerns. In his worldview, accumulating more Bitcoin is always the right move, regardless of what the stock market thinks about MSTR at any given moment.
What remains unclear is whether Strategy's persistent stock discount reflects genuine market skepticism about leverage and execution risk, or if it's simply a lag that will correct itself when Bitcoin makes its next big move higher.
Technical Picture Shows Persistent Downward Pressure
MSTR remains trapped inside a well-defined descending channel on the 4-hour chart. Since peaking above $350 in early October, the stock has printed consistent lower highs and lower lows, respecting the channel boundaries with little deviation.
A recent bounce toward $190 failed right at channel resistance, triggering another rollover. The stock now trades below all major exponential moving averages, with the 20 EMA near $176 and the 50 EMA around $194 both sloping sharply lower. The 100 EMA near $227 and the 200 EMA near $270 sit far overhead, creating a stacked resistance zone between $175 and $195 that has repeatedly capped recovery attempts.
Parabolic SAR dots remain positioned above price, confirming active downside momentum. Immediate support sits near $160, a level that's now being tested repeatedly. If that support breaks decisively, downside risk opens toward $145, with the lower boundary of the descending channel projecting further losses toward the $125 to $130 area heading into late December.
For the technical picture to improve, MSTR would need to reclaim $175 and hold above it, followed by a clean break and close above $195.