Strategy, Strive face balancing act between bitcoin buying and preferred stock dividends

“Perpetual preferreds have brought bitcoin to income investors, a group that ETFs never reached,” said Mark Palmer, a senior equity research analyst at StoneX.

Ryan Rasmussen, the head of research at Bitwise, also sees the products attracting buyers who might avoid bitcoin exchange-traded funds, though he expects the ETFs to remain the bigger demand channel.

“Over the long run, I expect ETFs to be a larger source of demand for bitcoin, with perpetual preferred offerings acting as a second tailwind addressing a different type of investor (yield investors),” Rasmussen said.

James Butterfill, CoinShares’ head of research, said STRC alone, which pays a variable dividend currently around 12%, raised $7.5 billion during 2026 through late July. That funding carries a recurring dividend cost.

Alex Blume, the founder and CEO of institutional bitcoin asset manager Two Prime, pointed out that products such as STRC and Strive’s SATA don’t offer just exposure to bitcoin prices. Their price also reacts to management competence, issuers’ obligations and capital-market conditions.

He cited STRC briefly falling into the $70 range in late June as evidence of potential volatility. Growing issuance creates a tension between increasing bitcoin per common share, meeting dollar-denominated dividend-payout commitments and avoiding bitcoin sales, he said. The Strategy preferred stock currently trades around $99.40.