Strategy's STRC Slips Below $99 as Strive Steals the…

Strategy's perpetual preferred security STRC fell as low as $97.11 on Thursday before recovering to close at $98.57, raising fresh questions about the company's ability to use the instrument as an efficient ATM capital-raising vehicle. The $100 par value is structurally important — if STRC trades below it, Strategy loses a key lever for issuing shares and raising fresh capital.

The pressure stems partly from a significant balance-sheet shift. Strategy recently repurchased $1.5 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2029, funded from its dollar cash reserve. That buyback cut cash from roughly $2.25 billion to $871 million — enough to cover only about six months of the company's estimated $1.7 billion annual preferred dividend obligations, down from an original 24-month cushion.