Strategy's STRC returns to $100 par after $2.25bn in buybacks
Strategy's Stretch preferred stock closed at $100 on Wednesday for the first time since May, back at the par value the company has spent roughly $2.25 billion in buybacks and five months of dividend increases defending. STRC had traded below $80 at times in June, a deep discount to the stated value at which Strategy says it will resume issuing new shares to fund bitcoin purchases.
The instrument, the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred, launched in July 2025 at $90 with a 9% starting rate; chairman Michael Saylor called it the company's "iPhone moment". It works as a feedback loop: Strategy adjusts the dividend each month to hold the price near $100, sells new shares when it trades above par and uses the cash to buy bitcoin. It grew into the largest tradable preferred in the world, with a market value above $8 billion and a holder base chief executive Phong Le has put at about 80% retail.
The loop broke this year. STRC drifted below par in late January and the price kept sliding as bitcoin fell toward $65,000, even as Strategy lifted the rate to 11.25% in February, 11.5% in March and 12% by summer. At $89 the at-the-market programme sat idle, cutting off the company's cheapest funding; in late May Strategy sold 32 BTC for about $2.5 million to cover a Stretch distribution, its first bitcoin sale since 2022. Analysts at Benchmark and TD Cowen disputed critics who raised the prospect of a "death spiral".
Strategy paused bitcoin purchases in the week of Oct. 19 and spent $204.9 million on STRC alone, part of the roughly $2.25 billion it has retired since the discount opened; each share bought below $100 shrank the float and cut the dividend bill at the same time. Two changes landed in the past week: shareholders approved daily dividends on STRC and three other preferreds on Oct. 28 by a 99.3% vote, with the first daily payment going out on Monday, and an Oct. 29 filing set the November rate at 12% annualised, or $1 per share for the month. Saylor had pledged to keep the stock at or above par and hold the dividend at 12% until it got there.
The recovery matters because of what sits beneath it. Strategy holds 849,327 BTC after adding 811 coins last week, at an average cost of about $75,446, leaving the position about 4% above water with bitcoin near $78,300 on Wednesday. The company reported $20.91 billion in third-quarter operating income, almost all of it unrealised gains, alongside a negative year-to-date BTC yield and a chief financial officer stepping down. STRC, STRF, STRK and STRD together carry annual dividends in the hundreds of millions, and the quarter's 5,552 BTC in sales went to fund them and the buybacks. A Stretch at par lets Strategy pay those obligations with new preferred issuance rather than coins; a Stretch at $89 does not. The test now is whether the company reopens the at-the-market programme at $100 and whether buyers absorb it. Shares of Strategy were up over 7% on the day after bitcoin jumped above $80,000.
What it means for Pakistan: Strategy's preferred stack is not listed in Pakistan, so the direct exposure for local investors is indirect, through bitcoin itself and through the sentiment that a large corporate treasury buyer sets for the market. A Stretch back at par restores Strategy's ability to raise new money for coin purchases, a signal that can support bitcoin prices globally, including for Pakistani holders trading on offshore venues. It also illustrates the funding risk of leveraged treasury models, a caution for local firms weighing bitcoin on their balance sheets while PVARA's licensing framework for virtual asset service providers takes shape.
