preferred on
Points of Focus
- Strategy’s STRC preferred stock returned 9% over the past year.
- Bitcoin fell 47% over the same period, per Strategy’s chart.
- Strategy sold 6,948 BTC in 2026 to help fund preferred dividends.
Strategy published a one-year return comparison on August 16, covering the period from August 14, 2025, through August 14, 2026, for its securities and August 15 for Bitcoin.
Over the past year, $BTC fell 47%. Our Digital Credit instruments ranged from -27% to +9%, with $STRC up 9%. Financial engineering can transform volatile Digital Capital into instruments designed for income, stability, and reduced downside risk. pic.twitter.com/ZtiRoeIsBA
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 16, 2026
The spread is wide: STRC returned 9%, STRD fell 8%, STRF fell 9%, STRK fell 27%, and spot Bitcoin fell 47% over the same window, a 56-point gap between Strategy’s best-performing preferred instrument and the asset that backs the entire company.
Bitcoin sales funded the gap with BTC price
The stability Saylor is pointing to came from somewhere. Strategy’s dividend obligations across its preferred share classes grew from roughly $300 million at the start of 2026 to about $1.2 billion, and covering that expansion required departing from the company’s long-standing accumulation posture. Strategy has sold Bitcoin from its treasury in four separate disclosed transactions in 2026, totaling 6,948 BTC for approximately $432 million.
The most recent sale, disclosed in an SEC 8-K filing on August 10, covered 1,690 BTC sold between August 3 and August 9 for roughly $108.6 million, at an average price of $64,262, about 15% below Strategy’s average acquisition cost of $75,385. Proceeds funded a repurchase of STRC preferred shares and replenished the company’s US dollar reserve to $4.65 billion as of August 9.
Strategy still holds 840,447 BTC, the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury and roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s total supply cap. Still, that position now carries an unrealized loss at current prices relative to its cost basis.
Saylor separates personal Bitcoin from Strategy’s BTC price exposure
Saylor has repeatedly separated his personal Bitcoin holdings, which he says remain untouched, from Strategy’s treasury, which he describes as subject to the ordinary capital management decisions of a public company.
The company’s Digital Credit Capital Framework, adopted this year, formally authorizes Bitcoin sales to fund preferred dividends, interest payments, and share repurchases, with total authorized sales under the program reaching up to $5 billion.
What Strategy’s BTC price sales mean going forward
The chart Saylor posted argues that financial engineering can convert Bitcoin’s volatility into stable income for preferred holders.
The treasury sales behind it suggest otherwise: stability has a funding cost, and so far Strategy has paid it by selling the asset the entire structure was built to hold. Whether STRC’s dividend coverage holds without further sales is the next test, not the one-year chart itself.
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