Saylor says STRC is now the largest holding in three leading US preferred stock ETFs. BlackRock’s PFF, VanEck’s PFXF, and Virtus’ PFFA hold a combined $756 million of it. STRC still trades ro
Michael Saylor announced on X on July 24 that STRC, Strategy’s variable-rate preferred stock, had become the largest single position in three of the biggest US preferred stock ETFs, with $756 million spread across BlackRock’s PFF, VanEck’s PFXF, and Virtus InfraCap’s PFFA. He framed the milestone as proof that the company’s “digital credit” products have reached mainstream institutional portfolios. The framing sits uneasily next to the price, because the same security closed that day near 13% below the $100 par value it was built to defend.
ETFIssuerSTRC valueWeightPFFBlackRock$469M3.55%PFXFVanEck$211M8.83%PFFAVirtus InfraCap$76M3.11%STRC is the top holding in all three. PFF is the #1 preferred ETF ($14B AUM); PFXF and PFFA hold $2.5B each. Data per etfdb.com and MutualFunds.com as of July 23, 2026.
Back on January 16, STRC was only PFF’s fourth-largest holding at $210 million and a 1.47% weight. In about six months it more than doubled that footprint and moved from fourth to first. ETF Beacon counts seven ETFs holding the security once leveraged and inverse funds are excluded.
Digital Credit is entering the institutional mainstream. $STRC is now the largest holding in three leading U.S. preferred stock ETFs, with $756 million held across BlackRock’s $PFF, Virtus InfraCap’s $PFFA, and VanEck’s $PFXF. pic.twitter.com/IoYwl2D360
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) July 24, 2026
STRC, formally the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, launched at $90 in July 2025 and raised about $2.47 billion, one of the larger US preferred offerings of that year. It is not quite a bond and not quite equity. There is no maturity, no guaranteed redemption, and no claim on Strategy’s Bitcoin. The dividend now runs at 12% annualized, paid in cash twice a month after a raise from 11.5% for record dates from July 1. The payout adjusts each month to keep the price hovering near its $100 par. Holders rank ahead of MSTR common for dividends and in liquidation, but they get no vote, no conversion, and almost no upside past par.
STRC is the flagship of five series Strategy markets as Digital Credit Securities.
SeriesNameDividendRank / noteSTRFStrife10% fixedHighest claimSTRKStrike8%Converts to MSTRSTRCStretch12% variableTargets par, most liquidSTRDStride10%Ranks lowestSTREStream10%Euro, LuxembourgAll carry a $100 par value and none is collateralized by Strategy’s Bitcoin. STRF, STRK, STRC, and STRD trade on Nasdaq.
None of the five is backed by the company’s Bitcoin. The pitch is that they fund Bitcoin purchases without diluting MSTR holders.
These securities pay in cash, not crypto, so they need no direct Bitcoin ownership. An institution whose mandate blocks digital assets can still buy a preferred stock from a Nasdaq-listed company without breaking a rule. STRC pairs that access with an effective yield above 13%, far above what most investment-grade preferreds offer. The fund gets an outsized yield plus indirect exposure to a Bitcoin treasury, in a wrapper its index screens already accept. That is why it rises to the top of the holdings tables.
STRC closed at $86.89 on July 24, up 2.29% on the day, still 13.11% under par. Its 52-week range runs from $71.25 to $100.42, and it has not touched $100 since mid-May. Strategy sells STRC to raise cash for Bitcoin, so issuing at a discount brings in less per share and weakens the economics. CEO Phong Le stated the dependency directly: “when Stretch gets back to par, we’ll issue more. We’ll buy more Bitcoin.”
The ownership numbers cut both ways. Le said the average institutional STRC position rose 105% to $3.5 million between March and July while retail’s share fell from 78% to 71%, correcting an earlier figure of 10%. Peter Schiff read it differently. He argued retail likely sold at a loss while professionals entered spread trades, long STRC against short MSTR, or long STRC against short Bitcoin. “None of those trades are bullish bets,” he wrote. Scott Melker countered that preferreds often trade below par and that $100 is a stated value, not a floor.
The discount traces to June, when the engineered stability broke. Selling built as Bitcoin fell under $60,000. STRC hit a then-record $89 on June 17, dropped further after a $1.5 billion convertible note buyback drained cash reserves, and printed an intraday low of $71.25 on June 26. Analysts blamed forced selling, as margin holders of a supposedly stable instrument were liquidated in sequence. Rosen Law Firm opened an investor investigation the same week. The turning point came on June 27, when Strategy’s market value fell below the value of its Bitcoin for the first time, flipping a long-standing premium to a discount. Below that 1.0x mNAV line, issuing common to buy Bitcoin destroys Bitcoin-per-share, leaving preferred issuance as the only lever, and each new preferred share locks in a cash dividend regardless of Bitcoin’s price.
Strategy answered on June 29 with a Digital Credit Capital Framework. It set up a repurchase program of up to $1.0 billion of Digital Credit Securities with STRC first in line, authorized a USD reserve and a revised STRC dividend policy, added a $1 billion common buyback, and cleared a Bitcoin monetization program of up to $1.25 billion. It acted quickly. A July 6 8-K disclosed the sale of 3,588 BTC for about $216 million, cutting holdings to 843,775 BTC, the largest reported sale in company history and far above the 32 BTC sold in May. Saylor’s old “never sell” line is gone. The dividend rose to 12% and the STRC buyback at below-par prices both aim to repair the preferred stack. Strategy points to a roughly $3.2 billion cash reserve, which at current rates covers close to two years of dividend and interest payments without a Bitcoin recovery or new equity, its answer to the concern behind the Rosen inquiry, whether it can keep paying if Bitcoin stays under its average cost near $75,476.
Le tied the next issuance to STRC reclaiming $100, so buying more Bitcoin now depends on closing a 13-point gap with buybacks and a fatter dividend. With mNAV capped at 1.0x, preferred stock is the only funding lever, and every new share adds a fixed cash payment owed in any market. The bind is that selling Bitcoin to cover those payments, as Strategy did in early July, pulls against the treasury thesis the whole structure exists to serve.
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