Garlinghouse Slams Strategy's Leveraged Bitcoin Playbook

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has publicly criticized Strategy's approach to buying and holding Bitcoin, calling it 'financial engineering' that hurts crypto markets.

The issue lies in Strategy's use of debt to accumulate more Bitcoin, which creates a negative compounding effect when prices fall. This model amplifies market risk and can lead to exaggerated damage during sell-offs, while also creating a forced deleveraging situation during risk-offs.

Garlinghouse emphasized that his criticism is not aimed at Bitcoin itself but rather the way Strategy interacts with crypto liquidity. He noted that this approach distorts price discovery and misleads market participants about true demand.