📉 Strategy paid off $1.5 billion in debt and accidentally destroyed the investment case for its own preferred stock.

STRC closed at $91.79 on Tuesday, its third lowest close since launch in July 2025. A look at the chart shows a pattern. STRC spikes toward par on ex-dividend dates, then bleeds lower between them.

That happens because monthly payments create one predictable moment every 30 days where holding STRC is worth more than it will be the day after. Traders buy before the record date to capture the dividend, then sell immediately after. The price rises into the cutoff and falls out of it, every single month. 🔁

Strategy tried to fix this by approving semi-monthly payments. However, Strive, a competing Bitcoin treasury company that issues its own preferred stock called SATA, looked at the same problem and switched to daily dividend payments. That eliminates the monthly ex-dividend volatility entirely.

💰 The more important difference is the balance sheet. Strategy used its cash reserves to repay $1.5 billion of convertible debt earlier this year. That move cut its dividend runway from 24 months to roughly 7 months. Their cash reserve now sits at ~$871 million. On the other hand, Strive carries zero debt, and holds more than 18 months of SATA dividend coverage in cash and marketable securities.

Yes, Strategy paid off debt to simplify its capital structure, but the side effect was that it signaled to preferred stock holders that the cash cushion behind their dividends is thinner than it was. Strategy will raise its dividend rate to 12% in July, with further increases likely in August. But if BTC falls further from current levels, that timeline extends because new buyers have less incentive to absorb the depeg at current prices.

🤔 Will STRC return to par eventually? Can Strategy rebuild that cash runway fast enough before more STRC holders decide SATA is the cleaner trade?