At a glance
- Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) sell the securities to raise cash for bitcoin purchases, then owe dividends on every share outstanding.
- An allocator weighing these securities against a spot bitcoin ETF is underwriting the issuer as well as the coin, because the dividend is a dollar commitment that recurs.
- Fidelity puts the bitcoin-focused preferred market at roughly $12 billion, against a $150 trillion global fixed-income market.
Perpetual preferred stock has financed purchases of about 136,000 bitcoin in the 20 months since the securities debuted, according to Fidelity Digital Assets research cited by CoinDesk. That is more than 0.5% of bitcoin's maximum supply.
Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) sell the securities to raise cash for bitcoin purchases, then owe dividends on every share outstanding. Each new sale adds to the recurring payout. Fidelity and analysts who spoke to CoinDesk describe the result as a balancing act: cash to buy more bitcoin against the investor appetite needed to keep selling the stock that supplies it. Strategy's STRC pays a variable dividend currently around 12% and raised $7.5 billion during 2026 through late July, CoinShares head of research James Butterfill said.
An allocator weighing these securities against a spot bitcoin ETF is underwriting the issuer as well as the coin, because the dividend is a dollar commitment that recurs. The preferreds sit between debt and common equity in the capital structure, pay a regular dividend and carry no voting rights.
Fidelity puts the bitcoin-focused preferred market at roughly $12 billion, against a $150 trillion global fixed-income market. Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, is the dominant issuer, with five classes of preferred; its first, STRK, debuted in February 2025.
StoneX senior equity research analyst Mark Palmer said the perpetual preferreds “have brought bitcoin to income investors, a group that ETFs never reached.” Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise, told CoinDesk he expects ETFs to remain the larger source of demand over the long run, with preferred offerings acting as “a second tailwind” for yield investors.
The preferreds do not track bitcoin alone. Alex Blume, founder and CEO of Two Prime, told CoinDesk that products such as STRC and Strive's SATA also respond to management competence, issuer obligations and capital-market conditions; he cited STRC briefly falling into the $70 range in late June.
Reported by the Adoption desk from CoinDesk. Published . Corrections