STRC is a preferred stock issued by Strategy, the company sitting on one of the world's largest bitcoin treasuries. It pays a cash distribution twice a month, currently running at 12% a year on its $100 par value. Think of it as a high-yield IOU from a single company: it ranks ahead of the common stock, but the payment is not guaranteed and the shares never mature.
Scale is 0–50%/yr. The shape of the verdict: the coupon sits right on the 12% growth bar. Nothing here reaches the 30% growth bar, and nothing is supposed to.
Strategy funds its bitcoin buying partly by issuing preferred stock, and STRC is the flagship series. The board sets a variable rate each month. It currently sits at 12% annualized on the $100 stated value, paid as two $0.50 checks a month. The rate started at 9% when STRC listed in July 2025 and has climbed as the company leaned on it harder. The coupon is the entire investment case.
The monthly reset has one stated job: keep the shares trading near $100. When the price sags, the board raises the rate to make the yield more attractive. The current 12% is itself a response to the shares trading below par. Think of it as a thermostat, not a promise: it reacts to the price, it does not guarantee it.
Preferred stock lives between bonds and common shares. If Strategy ever wound up, bondholders get paid first, then preferred holders like STRC, then common shareholders last. STRC is cumulative, so a skipped payment accrues instead of vanishing. It sits in the middle of Strategy's five preferred series: neither the safest nor the riskiest of the stack.
When STRC trades below $100, Strategy has been buying it back: $139 million in a single September week, under a program the board doubled to $2 billion. Retiring shares at a discount erases future dividend obligations cheaply, and the buying itself puts a floor under the price. Whether that bid stays is worth watching.
Nobody pays 12% for fun. The spread over Treasury bills compensates for single-company credit risk: Strategy's health is tied to bitcoin's price against its roughly $75,000 average cost. In June 2026, when bitcoin wobbled, STRC plunged toward $70. The coupon looked generous right up until the principal didn't. That is the trade, stated plainly.
STRC does not own bitcoin. It owns a promise from a company whose fortunes ride on bitcoin. If bitcoin collapses far enough to impair Strategy's balance sheet, the preferred falls with it. June 2026's slide toward $70 is the template. Price the credit, not the coupon.
The board declares each distribution "when, as and if." That is legal language for: they can cut it or skip it. A company under stress protects cash first, and preferred holders feel it early. Cumulative only helps if the company survives to catch up.
12% is today's rate, not a contract. The board resets it monthly, and if short-term rates fall, the coupon likely follows. Anyone buying for the yield should know the yield can move. The thermostat works in both directions.
In a calm market STRC behaves like income. In a panic it behaves like the stock of a bitcoin company, which is what it is. The diversification you want from income shows up weakest exactly when you want it most. June 2026 proved it.
This is perpetual: no end date, no guaranteed return of your $100. If the shares sit at $85 for years, your return is the coupon and nothing else. You are renting yield from Strategy indefinitely, or until you sell.