Strategy preferred stock slide tests Saylor’s stability pitch
STRC, a preferred stock tied to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin company Strategy, has fallen to $74 despite being designed to trade near $100.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Strategy’s preferred stock STRC has fallen well below its intended $100 level, putting pressure on Michael Saylor’s pitch that the security offered stability alongside high payouts, according to Fortune. The drop matters because Strategy is one of crypto’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders, and Fortune reported that strains in its financing structure could ripple through the sector.
Fortune reported that STRC, nicknamed “Stretch,” recently traded at $74. The security is a perpetual preferred stock issued by Strategy, the company formerly known for data software that has become a major Bitcoin holder under Saylor, its executive chairman.
According to Fortune, Saylor promoted STRC at a Prague conference in 2025 as an investment that gave buyers upside, no downside and a dividend while they waited. Fortune reported that Saylor has also described STRC as having “money market–like stability.”
The preferred stock sits between common equity and debt, Fortune reported. STRC does not give investors an ownership stake in Strategy, but its value is tied to confidence in the company’s business and capital-raising ability, according to Fortune.
Fortune reported that one STRC share was designed to trade at $100 and that holders receive biweekly dividends of about 11.5%. Strategy uses proceeds from selling the preferred stock to fund more Bitcoin purchases or to make interest payments to creditors, according to Fortune.
That structure has drawn sharper scrutiny as the price has fallen. Fortune reported that traders appear worried about whether Strategy can keep paying dividends, because those payments depend on available cash, and the company’s access to cash depends on whether lenders keep providing capital.
Tarun Chitra, cofounder of crypto risk firm Gauntlet, questioned the instrument’s durability on the crypto podcast The Chopping Block, asking whether STRC was “not inevitably going to collapse,” according to Fortune.
Strategy’s capital stack faces a test
Fortune reported that Strategy holds more than $50 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet. The company’s common stock had already dropped after Strategy sold Bitcoin in early June, according to Fortune.
David Lawant, head of research at crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, told Fortune that the central issue is whether Strategy’s capital structure “bends or breaks.” Lawant also told Fortune that the company is in a “test period.”
Saylor has tried to calm the market as STRC holders reassess the stability claims, according to Fortune. In March, Fortune reported, Saylor posted an advertisement on X that showed a woman saying she had put savings into STRC, with Saylor writing that people were not meant to live “an uncomfortable life.”
On Thursday, Saylor wrote on X that “volatility tests every capital structure,” Fortune reported. Despite investor doubts, Lawant told Fortune that he believes Strategy can survive the pressure, saying he thinks the company will “weather the storm.”
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.