Saylor distances himself from STRC-backed DeFi after stablecoin wobble

For months, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) founder Michael Saylor frequently reposted news about DeFi protocols using a variety of tokens and blockchains backed by Strategy’s STRC.

Now that their stablecoins and other yield farming tokens have wobbled, he wants everyone to know he was only sharing news, not endorsements.

STRC is one of Strategy’s stocks. It usually trades near $100 and pays a variable, 11.5% annualized dividend. Due to its high current rate of payouts, DeFi yield farmers find STRC appealing to tokenize through a variety of protocols, proprietary tokens, and blockchains.

Saylor took to social media today to clear up any misunderstanding about his frequent and prominent reposts about these non-bitcoin (BTC) tokens.

In his view, the free publicity he gave them was merely a series of non-endorsement “notifications.”

My beliefs: Retweets are notifications, not endorsements. Constructive dialogue leads to better outcomes. Bitcoin is hope and economic empowerment for everyone. Every good-faith effort to strengthen the network should be welcomed.

Saylor isn’t a BTC maximalist by the strictest of definitions. Indeed, despite Bitcoin branding and orange coloring across his company, website, and even attire, Saylor has spoken positively about alternative blockchains such as Ethereum and BNB Chain, so long as their utility improves adoption of BTC or Strategy’s securities like MSTR and STRC.

At altcoin conferences, he acknowledges the work of alternative blockchains in distributing proxies for BTC and Strategy exposure.

The timing is his disclaimer wasn’t subtle. In recent days, STRC-backed stablecoins like apxUSD and sUSDat started trading well below their prior $1 targets. 

Within the last week, the STRC-backed sUSDat on Ethereum traded 9.5% below its $1 target, and apxUSD similarly traded below $0.91.

Both mirrored a crash in STRC, a stock that Strategy tries to keep trading near $100 despite it hitting $90.38 on Friday.

In addition to social media reposts, Saylor named DeFi builders himself on stage at the Bitcoin 2026 conference, presenting three projects using STRC powered by a variety of altcoins: Apyx, Saturn, and Hermetica.

For example, Apyx uses DeFi protocols to transform STRC exposure into a type of synthetic dollar, apxUSD.

Saturn does roughly the same through its sUSDat token while another protocol, Pendle, slices STRC-backed tokens into ostensibly stable tokens as well as yield tokens like apyUSD.

Traders then loop their assets to borrow and re-borrow, manufacturing leveraged yields atop STRC that can reach higher than 38%.

Saylor didn’t merely tolerate this machinery, he repeatedly amplified these DeFi projects through reposting “notifications.”

For example, when STRC slipped, Saylor reposted Apyx declaring, “We just bought the $STRC dip.” 

Saylor reposted Saturn touting its increasing STRC exposure.

He reposted Pendle celebrating roughly half a billion dollars in STRC-linked deposits.

Although Saylor claims he never endorsed them, the protocols themselves never hid their devotion.

Indeed, Saturn’s account describes its team as “Disciples of @Saylor” while Strata, another builder in the convoluted stack of STRC-backed DeFi, used Saylor’s own terminology, “The Bitcoin Credit flywheel is spinning.”

Read more: Strive’s $50M STRC bet is already underwater

During the last week of May, Strategy sold 32 BTC, its first sale since 2022. The price of BTC immediately crated.

Saylor had spent years swearing he had no intention to sell Strategy’s BTC. Nonetheless, after the world’s most prominent buyer turned into a seller, BTC dropped from above $73,000 to near $62,000 within the month of June alone.

Unfortunately, the typically stable STRC fell with it, and the DeFi tokens that used STRC as backing inherited that volatility. A synthetic dollar is no more stable than the asset backing it.

The DeFi protocols Saylor broadcast to millions of his followers on X and other media appearances are declining in value along with STRC, so now he insists his reposts were only ever harmless notifications.

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