Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly criticized Michael Saylor’s Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), arguing the company’s leveraged Bitcoin-buying approach has damaged the broader crypto market.
Garlinghouse made the remarks during a Friday CNBC interview, framing the debate as a fundamental clash between long-term utility and short-term financial structuring.
At the center of his criticism was Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, known as STRC, which has been trading roughly 25% below its $100 par value.
Garlinghouse called that discount a “damning indictment” of the overall approach Saylor has built around continuously borrowing to acquire more Bitcoin.
“Team Michael Saylor wasn’t focused on the right stuff, and that has hurt the overall market,” Garlinghouse said, while making clear he was separating his view of Strategy from his view of Bitcoin itself.
He argued that “financial engineering does not drive long-term value,” and that “the long-term value of any digital asset is going to be driven by utility.”
When pressed on what the correct focus should be, Garlinghouse said that “if you’re just trying to financial engineer and leverage and borrow more money to buy more bitcoin,” that method will not produce sustainable value over time.
He acknowledged that Saylor would frame his own strategy differently, but said the leveraged structure added excitement on the way up while now compounding negatively as crypto moves through its natural cycles.
Despite his pointed critique of Strategy, Garlinghouse remained firmly bullish on Bitcoin itself, invoking Warren Buffett’s well-known maxim about being fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.
“Now is the time, I think, to be greedy,” he said, characterizing Bitcoin’s role as “digital gold” and highlighting its portability advantage over physical bullion.
He illustrated the point by noting that Germany’s central bank took two years and billions of dollars to move $300 billion worth of gold, while an equivalent sum in Bitcoin could be transferred far more quickly.
Turning to Ripple’s own business, Garlinghouse said the company cleared roughly $16 trillion in payments last year, partly through acquisitions, though the portion routed through a digital asset was close to zero.
He framed that gap not as a weakness but as a significant opportunity to migrate traditional financial infrastructure onto blockchain rails using XRP’s cross-border payments capabilities.
XRP was trading above $1, up more than 4% over the prior 24-hour period, even as retail sentiment on the token remained in bearish territory according to Stocktwits data.
