Saylor's Stretch goes slack: STRC slips to $82.5 as $BTC buying spooks the dividend crowd 💸

Strategy's Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC) fell as low as $82.53 on Tuesday, its weakest level since the preferred debuted in July 2025 and roughly 18% below its $100 par value, according to Yahoo Finance data. The slide extended on Thursday, when the shares touched a session low of $83 before recovering to $87.45, down 2.6% on the day. STRC closed at $91.79 a day earlier, an 8.2% discount to par and a 3.58% one-day decline. The product carries a stated 11.5% dividend, giving it an effective yield of 12.5% at the $91.79 print and 12.9% at $89, with monthly rate adjustments designed to keep the shares near $100.

Analysts pointed to Strategy's recent Bitcoin acquisitions, risk-off sentiment in crypto markets, and competition from rival Strive Asset Management's SATA preferred, which trades at $100 and offers an effective yield of about 13%, as drivers of the move. Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, said the market would prefer to see Strategy preserve cash for dividend payments rather than deploy it into additional BTC. "It appears traders are seeing the latest BTC acquisition as an unsustainable path for STRC," Thielen told Cointelegraph. Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, said "broader risk-off sentiment in crypto markets has weighed on investor appetite," adding that "persistent selling pressure and concerns over Strategy's expanding capital structure and ATM issuance appear to be testing that resilience in the near term." James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, said "STRC's continued weakness appears to be driven less by Bitcoin itself and more by uncertainty around how Strategy intends to fund and manage its growing fixed obligations," noting that "a Bitcoin rebound improves the value of the assets supporting Strategy, but it does not automatically increase the cash available." Benchmark-StoneX Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst Mark Palmer called the move mechanical rather than a sign of distress. "That is the structure doing exactly what it was built to do," Palmer told Decrypt, adding that Benchmark-StoneX expects Strategy to hike the dividend at the start of July and that the step should "support the price back toward par." Arca CIO Jeff Dorman urged Executive Chairman Michael Saylor to "either sell an enormous amount of BTC and MSTR to help bring $STRC back up near par, and at least buy yourself some time, or continue to watch every part of your cap structure melt because of the uncertainty you've created," while predicting Saylor would avoid a large BTC sale and that MSTR would instead decline on share dilution.

The pressure comes after Strategy disclosed on June 1 that it sold 32 BTC for about $2.5 million in late May to fund STRC distributions, the first Bitcoin sale since the company began accumulating in 2022. The firm has since built a dedicated USD Reserve that stood at $1.1 billion as of last week, down from a year-start balance of $2.25 billion after the repurchase of $1.5 billion of its 2029 convertible notes at an 8% discount on May 15. On Monday, Strategy said it acquired 1,587 BTC for around $100 million during the prior week, following a 1,550 BTC purchase the week before, bringing total holdings to 846,842 Bitcoin, roughly 4% of the supply that will ever exist.

STRC trades below par, Strategy has paused at-the-market share issuance, removing a key channel for funding further Bitcoin accumulation. Strive's announcement on May 14 that it would pay SATA dividends on a daily basis added competitive pressure as Strategy sought shareholder approval to shift STRC from monthly to semi-monthly distributions. Bitcoin has hovered between $62,000 and $65,000 this week, with BTC at $63,574.31 at the time of one report, and Strategy common shares (MSTR) fell about 6.35% to $122.81 on Tuesday and a further 5% to $116.52 on Wednesday, leaving MSTR down 67% over the past 12 months and 15% over the prior week. Strategy's next STRC payout, due at the end of the month, is expected to total roughly $100 million, and the company's remaining dividend-coverage runway was reported at about seven months.