PANews reported on March 27th, citing Forbes, that Strategy founder Michael Saylor stated at the Digital Asset Summit that the next phase for the crypto industry will be digital lending. He pointed out that Strategy's preferred stock, STRC, offers an 11.5% yield, 2% volatility, and a Sharpe ratio close to 4, making it a low-volatility, high-yield fixed-income instrument that already possesses institutional-grade liquidity. Saylor believes that Bitcoin-backed digital lending instruments are "the most attractive lending instruments globally."

Saylor divides crypto assets into three tiers: digital equity absorbs high volatility gains, digital capital sits in the middle, and digital lending provides structured returns with near-zero volatility. He states that STRC's Sharpe ratio is in the top 1%, even the top 0.1%, of publicly traded securities. Critics question whether this model relies on Bitcoin's continued rise and Strategy's continued fundraising on favorable terms. Saylor emphasizes that the next phase focuses on financial engineering, creating crypto products that can compete with traditional lending products.