Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnBibhu PattnaikThu, June 25, 2026 at 11:30 PM GMT+2 2 min readStrive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole has a number in his head: $3 trillion. That is how big he thinks the digital credit market could get.And he is not waiting for a bull market to make his case. He is making it in the middle of a Bitcoin (BTC) bear market.Speaking in a recent interview with Bloomberg, Cole laid out why he believes digital credit, securities that pay income backed by Bitcoin exposure, is not a niche product for crypto enthusiasts. It is, in his view, a solution to a fundamentally broken income market.The income problemCole's argument starts with a straightforward observation. Money markets do not keep pace with fiat currency debasement, which he puts at 6%-7% per year. U.S. treasuries had a 40-year bull run from 1980 to 2020 that propped up fixed income returns. That run is over."The money is broken. The dollar is broken and people are losing trust in income solutions," he said.Against that backdrop, he argues individuals, corporations, and institutions all need something that returns more than the rate of currency debasement, and is backed by an asset with staying power.That is the gap digital credit is designed to fill.Analyst issues bold call on Cathie Wood's favorite crypto stockThe path to $3 trillionCole acknowledged the digital credit universe currently consists of just two products, SATA from Strive and STRC from Strategy."The fact that we've seen it explode to about $10 billion in the midst of a bear market shows you what this could be in good times," he said.Getting to $3 trillion means new issuers, new currencies, and different risk-return profiles for different investors.