Saylor proposes digital rights bill to unlock AI-era capital formation

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy, the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, has called for a United States Digital Rights Bill that would guarantee five fundamental freedoms — create, issue, custody, transfer and use digital assets — arguing that the existing financial architecture cannot support the pace of capital formation required by artificial intelligence.

“Individuals and businesses must have the right to create, issue, custody, transfer, and use digital assets to generate wealth and prosperity,” Saylor wrote.

He sets out the five rights as a single framework: the freedom to develop new digital assets and applications; to launch them into markets and finance productive activity; to hold assets directly or choose a custodian; to move assets between wallets, service providers and jurisdictions; and to spend, invest, earn income and borrow against them as collateral. Those rights, he argues, must rest on financial privacy and practical market access.

Saylor draws a distinction between four asset classes — digital tokens, digital currencies, digital capital and digital securities — each serving a different economic function. Policy, he says, should recognise those differences while preserving common foundations of ownership, clear disclosure, enforceable title and accountability for fraud. Rules should give honest participants confidence to trade while leaving room for products and business models that do not yet exist.

On capital formation, Saylor argues that digital tokens offer a faster, lower-cost route for entrepreneurs to reach investors directly. He sets a target of enabling 10 million new businesses to raise capital, warning that if incumbents protect existing models while blocking successors from financing, the economy cannot adapt to technological change. Small business financing, he adds, should be accessible to founders who cannot afford large legal teams.

Stablecoins, which Saylor terms “digital dollars,” should be open to competition among banks, fintechs and technology platforms. He envisions dollar-based products embedded in devices and applications already used by billions, with issuers competing on yield, services and clearly disclosed risk.

“If yield competition is suppressed to protect institutions that pay little or no interest, such a policy effectively prioritises the interests of those institutions over those of customers,” he wrote, recommending that laws preventing such competition be amended.

Bitcoin, which Saylor classifies as digital capital, becomes more productive when holders can securely custody it, borrow against it and integrate it into the broader financial system. He urges clear, commercially viable rules for banks to custody Bitcoin and offer Bitcoin-backed credit, and for insurers to incorporate digital capital into balance sheets and product design.

The Basel Committee’s 1,250% risk weight for Category 2b crypto assets, he says, exemplifies excessive strictness; policymakers should reassess capital rules based on actual risks and differentiate between holding assets for clients, lending against collateral and holding on a bank’s own book.

Tokenised securities, in Saylor’s view, should unlock 24/7 cross-market access and empower owners to self-custody, transfer to preferred service providers and use assets in competitive custody and credit markets. An investor holding $1 million in stocks should be able to compare financing terms, yield opportunities and service quality across providers and reallocate accordingly. Even if users ultimately choose custodial services, the credible threat of self-custody gives them bargaining power.

“If securities are merely placed on a blockchain but remain restricted within the same closed system of intermediaries, much of this opportunity’s potential remains unrealised,” he wrote.

Financial privacy, Saylor argues, is part of economic freedom. Individuals and businesses should conduct daily transactions without pervasive surveillance, provided they remain accountable for fraud and illicit activity. The framework he outlines would treat privacy not as a loophole but as a structural feature of a functioning digital economy.

The article stops short of drafting legislative text but signals that Strategy intends to engage policymakers on each pillar. Whether Congress or regulators adopt a rights-based approach — or continue with enforcement-led, asset-by-asset rulemaking — will shape how quickly AI-era entrepreneurs can turn computational breakthroughs into funded enterprises.

Related: Strategy · Michael Saylor