Michael Saylor Calls for a “Bill of Digital Rights” to Protect Crypto Freedoms

Between increasing his Bitcoin stash, Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor has found the time to write an essay on digital asset policy and AI. In the piece posted on X over the weekend and titled “Prescriptions for Prosperity in the Digital Economy”, he argued that the AI era needs “a bill of digital rights, not a bill of restrictions”.

His core ask is that people and firms be free to make, issue, hold, move and spend digital assets, with financial privacy underpinning it all.

Startups, Stablecoins and Stodgy Bank Rules

AI will let far more people build companies, he says, so raising cash should get cheaper and simpler. He’d like 10 million new businesses to be able to raise cash through lighter token-issuance rules.

Stablecoin issuers should be “allowed to compete on yield”, and banks should be free to hold Bitcoin and lend against it. He singles out the Basel rules’ 1,250 per cent risk weight on some crypto exposures as a prime example of overkill.

Reporting rules get a going-over too. Saylor wants reporting thresholds raised and tied to inflation. The US$10,000 (AU$14,228) cash reporting threshold dates back to 1972. The US Government Accountability Office estimates inflation would have taken it to roughly US$72,880 (AU$103,699) by 2023. He also wants reusable identity checks, so investors don’t hand over the same documents to every counterparty.

Then there’s the AI angle. Software agents will need money that works around the clock, and he sees digital assets as a natural fit.

Read also: Institutions Hold the Line on Crypto Through Bitcoin’s 50% Drawdown

Not Sold on CLARITY

However, Saylor isn’t a fan of the CLARITY bill, which he says leans too hard on restrictions. Certainty is no use in his view if it smothers the products that would make the industry worth having.

A long, detailed law can still be a poor foundation for prosperity if it protects existing intermediaries by limiting the usefulness of new assets. Certainty has little value when it makes productive innovation impossible.

Michael Saylor

His preferred route is through regulators rather than Congress. Over the next two years, he’s backing the SEC, CFTC, Treasury and the White House to do the heavy lifting. His target is an industry worth US$100 trillion (AU$142 trillion).

Reaching that potential will require millions of people and companies experimenting with better ways to create and organize capital.

Michael Saylor

Last week, we reported that Saylor’s Strategy had restarted its Bitcoin buying, with the addition of 950 BTC bringing total holdings to 846,000 BTC.

In a Friday tweet, Saylor said Strategy was proposing daily dividends on its $STRF, $STRC, $STRK and $STRD stock offerings. He added that the changes were intended to “support price stability, liquidity, and demand”, with dividends accruing every day, including weekends and holidays, and paid on the next business day.

Read more: Trump Discloses Up to $100,000 Purchase of Strategy Shares