Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor called on U.S. policymakers to adopt a bill of digital rights during a September 22nd fireside chat at the Bitcoin Policy Institute's Freedom Tech DC summit, according to a transcript published on his website.

Saylor shared the transcript in a September 24th X post, writing that "the age of Digital Assets and Digital Intelligence needs a bill of digital rights."

The conversation with Conner Brown, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., covered capital formation, digital currency, bank adoption of Bitcoin, and financial infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

Saylor noted he had presented a digital assets taxonomy at a White House summit roughly 18 months earlier, and valued the industry today at about $3 trillion.

Capital Formation

Saylor argued that U.S. rules make raising money too costly for small and midsize businesses.

He pointed out that of roughly 40 million U.S. businesses, perhaps 400 are well-known seasoned issuers, a designation for large public companies that qualify for a faster SEC registration process.

"Only 400 out of 40 million can raise money with low friction in the public markets," Saylor stated.

He proposed modernizing those rules to allow companies to raise capital through digital tokens.

Yield and Self-Custody

Saylor acknowledged progress under the GENIUS Act but described the CLARITY bill as "a bill of restrictions," noting that roughly 600 of its 630 pages imposed limits.

He argued that a competitive market in which stablecoin issuers could offer different yields would strengthen the dollar, and criticized rules he said would keep major technology companies from issuing digital currency.

"An issuer should be able to pay yield. A holder should be able to take custody and transfer the asset," he explained.

Saylor tied the value of tokenized securities to the same principle, arguing that the right to self-custody and move assets between custodians would force competition on yield and lending terms.

Banks and Bitcoin

On Bitcoin, Saylor called for rules allowing banks to custody the asset and extend credit against it, including removal of the "Basel 1,250 percent risk weighting."

That Basel Committee standard requires banks to hold capital equal to the full value of certain digital asset exposures.

He estimated that about $1.6 trillion of capital sits in Bitcoin today, most of it unbanked outside exchange-traded funds.

Saylor projected that $10 billion of bank credit against Bitcoin would absorb roughly a year of new supply, and that two or three banks extending $100 billion within 12 months could double or triple its price.

He cited JPMorgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley as examples of major banks that could lead that shift.

He also pointed to more progressive guidance from the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on custody and credit.

Regulators and AI

Saylor identified the heads of the CFTC, the SEC, and the Treasury, along with the president, as the four most important actors for the industry over the next 24 months.

He characterized the current administration as far more progressive than the text of the CLARITY bill.

Saylor closed by arguing that AI agents will depend on purely digital money. "AI agents will not be able to get bank accounts," he said, adding that they "will have to go purely digital."

He contrasted a real estate purchase that can take a year with a Bitcoin transfer that settles in seconds or minutes.