STRC hits yearly low as market demands 12.6% yield

Strategy's $10.5 billion variable-rate perpetual preferred stock STRC closed Tuesday at $91.79 — its third-lowest print since the instrument began trading in July 2025 and well below the $100 level the Michael Saylor-led firm has actively tried to defend. The stock pays an annual dividend of $11.50, which at the current price translates to roughly 12.6% in yield, the level the market is now demanding before it lets the security drift back toward par. Bitwise Europe's Andre Dragosh put the equilibrium dividend at "around 12.6$ right now," estimating Saylor would need to lift the payout by slightly more than a dollar to pull STRC back to $100.

Why it matters

STRC has expanded from $2.8 billion to $10.5 billion over the past year through at-the-market issuance, adding $7.7 billion and becoming one of the fastest-growing financial products in history. It is the central engine behind Strategy's leveraged Bitcoin treasury strategy, and its ability to keep printing preferred shares near par has been the assumption underpinning the company's $70+ billion BTC stack. Kraken chief economist Thomas Perfumo's analysis shows roughly 86% of the variation in STRC's yield spread is explained by Bitcoin's price — investors are treating the instrument less like a stable preferred and more like a credit product whose risk premium moves with BTC.

Market impact

The slide puts Strive's SATA directly in the spotlight: that rival Bitcoin-backed preferred has held near par while offering a ~13% annualized yield with daily dividend payments, raising the structural bar for STRC. Parker White of DeFi Development Corp. estimated the cost to short STRC at roughly 60 basis points, versus an annualized ~17.6% for SATA once daily dividend obligations are priced in, making STRC materially easier to lean against. White's prescribed fix — a 12% dividend, a vote to move to daily payments, a call price raised from $101 to at least $110, and a $2.5 billion cash buffer — would lift the recurring cash burden on Strategy and could slow the pace of new Bitcoin purchases, the trade-off Saylor has so far declined to make.