---
title: "The Original 1,000x — Standard Oil Is Happening Again"
author: "Jackson Fairbanks"
author_url: "https://tnorth.com/crew/jackson-fairbanks/"
publisher: "True North"
publisher_url: "https://tnorth.com"
canonical_url: "https://tnorth.com/research/the-original-1000x-standard-oil-is-happening-again/"
markdown_url: "https://tnorth.com/research/the-original-1000x-standard-oil-is-happening-again.md"
date_published: "2026-03-15"
date_updated: "2026-03-15"
rendered_at: "2026-05-02T14:13:21.996Z"
section: "research"
tickers: ["MSTR", "STRC"]
instruments: ["MSTR", "STRC"]
asset_class: "perpetual-preferred-equity-bitcoin-backed"
word_count: 554
reading_time_minutes: 3
license: "© 2026 True North. Cite with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Not investment advice."
disclosure: "True North is operated by Strive, Inc. Independent contributor content published under https://tnorth.com/legal/independent-discussion/."
tldr_generated: true
---

# The Original 1,000x — Standard Oil Is Happening Again

> **TL;DR.** Jackson Fairbanks draws the parallel between Standard Oil's refinement of crude oil into kerosene and Strategy's refinement of volatile Bitcoin into stable yield products like STRC — and argues this playbook is just getting started.
> — Jackson Fairbanks, True North (https://tnorth.com/research/the-original-1000x-standard-oil-is-happening-again/)

And we're still early.

History does not rhyme. It repeats.
And Standard Oil is back…

Only better, faster, smarter, and way bigger.

It's the same market (everyone).
The same framework (simple).
And arguably the same product.

And no…
It's not AI.

It's actually the one thing that may be bigger than AI.

AI is coming for all of our jobs.
This is coming for all of our money.

First, I will explain Standard Oil's simple business.

Then I will show you how that same business model is being executed in real time today.

Finally, I will point to the terrifying scale and speed at which this has developed in just 6 months.

Deal? Deal.

Standard Oil

Timeline:

1870: $1m in capital.
1882: $70m in capital.
1882–1906: Earned $800m+ in income, paid $500m+ in dividends.
1911: First $1b+ company ever (the entire U.S. stock market was only $16b).

In today's terms Standard Oil was a $5t company. Bigger than Nvidia.

All while gushing dividends.

That's what a simple, "boring" oil business did with one powerful idea.

Now Nvidia… it's complex.
I'm still not even sure what Nvidia does.

But Standard Oil?

That's a business I could get behind:

The world discovers a valuable commodity: Oil.

Oil proves to be an extremely useful store of energy.

But in its raw form it's too volatile and unsafe for most of society.

So Standard Oil did the only obvious thing.

They took the crude oil and repackaged it into a safer, more stable product: kerosene.

Then they sold it to society.

What was once too volatile and dangerous for retail use was, through chemical engineering, made safe and stable enough for all of society to benefit.

And benefit they did.

Standard Oil became the largest company in the world.

All because they took a powerful raw commodity, repackaged it into a less volatile product, and sold it to society.

Strategy, [$MSTR](https://www.strategy.com), is doing exactly this.

The world discovers a valuable commodity: Bitcoin.

Bitcoin proves to be an extremely useful store of energy.

But in its raw form, Bitcoin is too volatile and misunderstood for most of society.

So Strategy did the only obvious thing.

They took Bitcoin and repackaged it into a safer, more stable product: [$STRC](/digital-credit/markets/strc/).

And they are selling it to society. Fast.

What was once too volatile and dangerous for retail use was, through financial engineering, made safe and stable enough for all of society to benefit.

And benefit they do.

11.5% yield, paid monthly, is not a hard product to sell to anyone who likes money.

Like Standard Oil, Strategy has taken a powerful raw commodity, repackaged it into a less volatile product, and sold it to society.

[$STRC](/digital-credit/markets/strc/) was created less than 8 months ago.
They've already sold more than $8b of this stuff.

What Standard Oil did to become a behemoth is being done again.
Right now.

Still, it took Standard Oil years to move on the railroads.
Every step was bound by physical effort.

But imagine if it wasn't.
If those railroads were digital.
If the kerosene could be transported instantly.

How fast would it have grown?

And what if, instead of redefining energy,
it was redefining money as we know it?
What would it have become?

**A monster.**

*"Bitcoin is crude capital."*
 — Michael Saylor, Q3 2024 $MSTR earnings call

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