Peter Schiff has renewed his assault on MicroStrategy, calling the company's STRC preferred share a "pure Ponzi scheme" and labeling Bitcoin a "hybrid pyramid scheme." The remarks came as Strategy, the rebranded software firm turned Bitcoin treasury company, reported a sharp loss in its Q1 2026 results — its third consecutive quarterly deficit.
The Schiff-Saylor exchange
Schiff warned that STRC's structure will eventually buckle under its own weight. MicroStrategy, he argued, will face a moment when the dividends on STRC become unsustainable. The longtime gold bug has spent months publicly calling Michael Saylor's entire strategy a scam.
Saylor, for his part, has acknowledged the risk. He admitted this week that MicroStrategy would sell Bitcoin if necessary to keep paying dividends on the preferred shares. Schiff pounced on that, predicting that Saylor would sooner suspend the dividend and crash STRC than sell Bitcoin and crash its price.
The dividend dilemma
Strategy has issued multiple preferred classes in recent years, each carrying recurring dividend commitments. The company's Q1 loss, reported Wednesday, only sharpens the math problem. Critics warn that any suspended dividend would trigger a steep repricing across the entire structure and pressure confidence in similar corporate treasury models that rely on perpetual debt or preferred issuance.
Neither Schiff nor Saylor have commented further on the record since the Q1 filing.
The question hanging over the market now is whether Strategy can keep both STRC holders and Bitcoin maximalists happy at the same time. Saylor's admission that he'd consider liquidating the company's core asset to pay a dividend suggests the balancing act won't last forever.
