Bitcoin-backed preferred stocks are the most consequential financial innovation the corporate treasury sector has produced. In under two years they went from nonexistent to a category of their own — Michael Saylor calls it digital credit — with six relevant instruments, coupons up to 13% and historic milestones: the largest U.S. perpetual preferredPerpetual PreferredFixed-income instrument with no maturity that pays a fixed dividend, ranking ahead of common shareholders.View term → IPO since 2009 and the first daily dividend ever paid by a U.S.-listed security. This guide explains the instrument from zero. Data as of July 14, 2026, refreshed monthly; live prices and next payments are on our preferreds hub.
What are Bitcoin preferred stocks?
A Bitcoin preferred stock is a perpetual security — no maturity date — that pays a fixed or variable dividend on a par value (typically $100), issued by a company whose treasury is denominated in Bitcoin. The investor is not buying direct exposure to the BTC price: they are buying an income stream whose solvency depends on the issuer's balance sheet — its Bitcoin reserve, its cash and its ability to keep raising capital. It is Wall Street's classic perpetual preferred, applied to issuers whose dominant asset is Bitcoin.
How they work: par, dividend and perpetuity
Four pieces define the instrument. The par value ($100 in every U.S. case) is the base for the dividend calculation and the reference for "par": trading at $95 means trading below par. The dividend can be fixed (STRF pays an unchanging 10%) or variable (STRC and SATA adjust theirs up or down under their own rules). Perpetuity means the issuer is never obligated to return the principal: the investor's only exit is selling on the market, though the issuer usually reserves a repurchase option (callable). And priority: preferreds get paid before common stock but after all debt — the hierarchy is explained in senior and junior and pari passu.
Why treasury companies issue preferreds
For a Bitcoin treasury companyCorporate TreasuryA company that adopts Bitcoin as a primary or significant balance-sheet asset.View term →, the preferred solves a problem neither equity nor debt solves well: it raises permanent capital without diluting common shareholders and without creating a maturity to refinance. Unlike convertible debt — which dominates Strategy's balance sheet and comes due — a perpetual preferred never has to be repaid; in exchange, it commits a high coupon forever. And once listed, it becomes a continuous funding machine: the issuer sells new preferred shares into the market through ATM programs and uses the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin. That engine funded a large share of Strategy's 2025-2026 purchases.
The 2026 map: who issues what
As of July 2026 there are two active issuers in the U.S. and one in the wings in Japan. Strategy (MSTR) has four series: STRK (8%, convertible into MSTR shares), STRF (10% fixed, cumulative), STRD (10%, non-cumulative) and STRC (12% variable, semi-monthly) — the largest and most traded, having raised $2.521B in its July 2025 IPO. Strive (ASST) issues SATA: 13% variable with daily payment, ~$783M par outstanding. And Metaplanet has announced its Mercury series (4.9% on a ¥1,000 par), set to become the first perpetual preferred ever listed in Japan; the listing has been delayed since May 2026 by the Japanese exchange's requirements, though ~$150M has already been placed privately with institutional investors. All six profiles, with live prices and calculators, on the preferreds hub.
The frequency war: from quarterly to daily
Payment frequency has become the category's competitive battleground. STRK, STRF and STRD pay quarterly, like traditional preferreds. STRC was born monthly and pays twice a month since July 2026. And SATA broke the ceiling on June 16, 2026: a cash dividend every business day, roughly 250 payments a year — the first U.S.-listed security ever to do it. Frequency is not cosmetic: it accelerates compounding (SATA's daily 13% works out to ~13.9% effective) and reduces calendar risk for the holder, at the cost of payment operations that only make sense for digitally native issuers.
Where the dividend comes from (the uncomfortable question)
This is the central point for understanding the risk: no Bitcoin preferred issuer currently covers its dividend with operating profit. Strategy pays ~$1.76B a year in preferred dividends plus interest against a software business generating a fraction of that; Strive needs ~$102M a year for SATA. The payments come from three sources: issuing new shares (ATM), drawing on dollar reserves — Strategy keeps $2.55B, 17.4 months of coverage — and, since July 2026, selling Bitcoin: Strategy sold 3,588 BTC (~$216M) to replenish its reserve. The model is sustainable as long as the market keeps funding the issuer and the collateral holds its value; that is why the BTC price and the market's appetite for the paper are the two variables that govern the instrument.
The risks: what June 2026 taught
June 2026 was the category's first real stress test, and it left concrete lessons. STRC — designed to always trade at $100 — fell to $71.25 when a depleted reserve, Strategy's first BTC sale since 2022 and Bitcoin below $60,000 coincided; as of July 14 it hovers around $87. The full timeline and the issuer's response are in the STRC vs SATA comparison. The structural risks: par is not guaranteed; in non-cumulative series a skipped dividend is lost forever (the difference is explained under cumulative dividend); the preferred is subordinated to all of the issuer's debt; the call option favors the issuer; and the whole edifice rests on the price of Bitcoin. You can simulate BTC drawdowns against each issuer's balance sheet in the stress test.
How to compare preferreds: five criteria
With six instruments on the map, disciplined comparison comes down to five questions. Price versus par: paying $87 for $100 of par adds appreciation upside — and says something about market confidence. Effective yield: coupon plus frequency (a semi-monthly 12% compounds less than a daily 13%). Collateral: how much Bitcoin backs each dollar of issued par — Strive keeps ~1.6x behind SATA; Strategy's collateral is enormous in absolute terms but coexists with over $8B of convertibles ahead of it. Dividend coverage: months of reserve available without tapping the market. Fine print: cumulative or not, convertible or not, callableCallableA clause allowing the issuer to redeem a preferred share at par value from a given date.View term → from when. The profiles on the preferreds hub collect these fields for every series, with a yield calculator on the live price.
A market that has just begun
The category is under two years old and has already produced record issuance, a world-first in payment frequency and its first confidence crisis. If the Bitcoin treasury thesis keeps playing out, digital credit will be the piece connecting traditional fixed income to the BTC balance sheet — and episodes like June, the tuition. We will keep updating this guide monthly with the hub's data.
Data as of July 14, 2026. SatsIntel is informational: nothing above is financial advice.
