A New Kind Of Funding Tool

STRC, the company’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, recorded $1.53 billion in trading volume on Thursday — the highest single-day figure it has ever posted.

Chairman Michael Saylor announced the milestone on social media, calling it an all-time high in liquidity. The preferred stock, known informally as Stretch, has become Strategy’s go-to method for raising money to buy Bitcoin in 2026, stepping in as other funding channels have grown harder to access.

Senior convertible notes and at-the-market equity offerings have both tightened over the past year, pushing the company toward preferred stock as its primary capital source.

Stretch works by paying investors an 11.5% dividend without touching the company’s common shares. That structure keeps existing shareholders from being diluted while still bringing in fresh capital.

Based on data from the STRC.live tracker, Thursday’s trading performance could allow Strategy to raise an estimated $735 million — enough, in theory, to acquire around 9,066 Bitcoin. Whether the company will move forward with a purchase based on those funds remains unclear.

The Broader Bitcoin Buying Spree

Strategy’s pace of acquisition has picked up sharply. The company has bought 56,770 Bitcoin since April and more than 101,000 since March, bouncing back after a slow February.

Bitcoin’s own price movement has helped the math: the recent rally to around $81,000 pushed above Strategy’s average purchase price of $75,543, putting its holdings up 7%.

During a first-quarter earnings call on May 5, Saylor said he wants Stretch to become the largest credit instrument in the world.

Reports indicate the company posted a $1.25 billion net loss in Q1 as Bitcoin fell during that period, though the situation has since shifted with the price recovery.

Strategy is not alone in using this type of structure. Strive announced Thursday that holders of its own preferred stock, SATA, would begin receiving daily dividends starting June 16 — a faster payout schedule than the monthly distributions Stretch offers.

Tokyo-based Metaplanet has also raised funds through preferred stock instruments called MARS and MERCURY to buy Bitcoin.A Crowded Field With One Giant

Nearly 200 public companies now hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Strategy remains far ahead of all of them. Its 818,869-coin position dwarfs every other corporate holder, and the company shows no signs of slowing the accumulation. Preferred stock, for now, is the engine making that possible.

Featured image from Free3D, chart from TradingView
source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/newsbtc:b3fd0cb14094b:0-strategy-s-main-bitcoin-acquisition-vehicle-sees-massive-1-5b-trading-explosion/