Strategy (MSTR) Preferred STRC Returns to $100 Par for First Time Since May

A Five-Month Discount Closes

Strategy (MicroStrategy) (MSTR) marked a milestone on Wednesday: its STRC preferred stock returned to its $100 par value for the first time since May, the level above which the company can sell new shares to fund bitcoin purchases. Chairman Michael Saylor had pledged to keep the security at or above par and to hold the dividend at 12% until it got there. The stock traded below $80 at points in June, a deep discount to its stated value, and the recovery followed months of rate increases and buybacks. STRC, formally the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred, is built as a feedback loop: the monthly-set dividend is adjusted to keep the price near $100, new STRC are sold whenever the stock trades above par, and the proceeds buy bitcoin.

Two changes landed in the past week. A shareholder vote on October 28 backed daily dividends for STRC and three other preferred series with 99.3% approval, removing the semi-monthly ex-dividend drops that had added volatility. Monday brought the first daily payment, and a company filing dated October 29 fixed the November payout at an annualized 12%, which works out to $1 a share for the month.

The buyback did most of the repair work. Strategy halted bitcoin buying during the week of October 19 and directed $204.9 million into STRC alone, out of roughly $2.25 billion in total repurchases since the discount opened; every share retired below $100 thinned the float and lowered the dividend bill at the same time. Strategy common shares rose about 6.7% to $144.67 by midday Wednesday, a move that came as bitcoin pushed above $80,000 intraday. A return to par also lets the company cover its preferred-share obligations with new issuance rather than coins.

From $74.57 to Par

Buyers at the bottom have now been paid for the wait. STRC's lowest close of the drawdown came at $74.57 on June 26, which leaves an entry at that print up about 34% on price alone at the restored level. The security debuted in July 2025 priced at $90 with an initial 9% rate, and Saylor billed it as the company's “iPhone moment.” It grew into the world's largest tradable preferred stock, worth more than $8 billion, and CEO Phong Le has estimated that retail holders own about 80% of it.

The loop then broke. STRC slipped below par in late January, and the rate moved to 11.25% in February, then 11.5% in March, then 12% by the summer, yet the stock kept sinking as bitcoin slid toward $65,000. With STRC at $89 the at-the-market issuance shelf sat idle, shutting off the company's cheapest funding route, and in late May Strategy sold 32 bitcoin for roughly $2.5 million to cover a Stretch distribution, the first sale since 2022. Peter Schiff argued in October that Strategy had lost its issuance channel; analysts at Benchmark and TD Cowen rejected that death-spiral framing at the time.

The underlying treasury position has not moved much. It stands at 849,327 BTC, close to 4% of total supply, after an addition of 811 coins last week, with an average purchase price near $75,446. With bitcoin near $78,300 on Wednesday, the stack sat roughly 4% above water. The company's third quarter carried $20.91 billion of operating income, nearly all unrealized gains, alongside a negative year-to-date BTC yield and a departing chief financial officer. The four preferreds, STRC, STRF, STRK and STRD, owe annual dividends that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars, and 5,552 BTC sold during the quarter went toward them and the buybacks. STRC last held par for four straight sessions in mid-May before bitcoin's slide pulled it under again. The next test is whether Strategy reopens issuance at par and whether buyers absorb the supply: a November 2 filing shows $17.5 billion of unused STRC at-the-market sales capacity, none of it touched last week.

The common shares now change hands at $145.05, up 6.4% over 24 hours and 0.3% below the level they held when the par story crossed the tape at 18:29 UTC, COINOTAG data shows, after a session range of $129.37 to $146.51. The composite scoring rates the nearest support at $133.41 as strong at 100/100, with the closest resistance at $153.17 scored 75/100, levels that frame the post-rally consolidation. Momentum reads neutral to firm: the daily RSI sits at 53.3, the MACD signal is bullish and the trend label is sideways. The perpetual funding rate stands at 0.0052% per interval with open interest near $126.5 million, a quiet derivatives backdrop beneath a loud equity tape.