The Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy has launched a selling plan, with cross-exchange trading potentially being the key to maximizing value.

Written by: Cooper Duschang

Translated by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

Key Points

• From June 29 to July 5, Strategy sold 3,588 bitcoins to pay preferred stock dividends and replenish dollar reserves. This is only the third and fourth sale since they began purchasing bitcoin in August 2020.
• Strategy's STRC preferred stock structure could generate up to $1.26 billion in dividend costs annually. Currently, the STRC price is about 10% below face value, and the dividend rate has been raised to 12%, which will further push up dividend costs.
• Strategy can improve the actual transaction price of bitcoin by executing trades across multiple exchanges and markets. The Binance-USDT market has superior order book depth, accommodating approximately 2,900 bitcoins within a 10% range around the midpoint price.

Introduction

Micro Strategy was founded in 1989 and was originally an enterprise software company. In 2020, the company realized that its cash reserves were at risk of rapid inflation depreciation and decided to invest cash in bitcoin as a hedge.

On July 6, 2026, Strategy disclosed the sale of bitcoins in an 8-K filing, marking only the third and fourth sales since 2020. Strategy's complex capital structure requires continuous payment of dividends to preferred shareholders, management of convertible debt, and continued accumulation of bitcoins. This article will delve into the role of STRC preferred stock in the company's capital structure, the reasons for the bitcoin sales, and how to maximize the value of bitcoins through optimized trading execution.

Strategy's Capital Operations Strategy

In 2025, Micro Strategy officially changed its name to Strategy. Since its initial investment, the company has accumulated 843,775 bitcoins through debt and equity financing. Since these bitcoins are primarily purchased through financing, the company essentially provides leveraged exposure to bitcoins for its investors and has pioneered large-scale acquisition models of a single crypto asset, now referred to as Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs).

Layered Capital Structure

Strategy has issued various structured products to finance the purchase of bitcoins. Convertible bonds allow the company to raise funds without immediately diluting common stock. These bonds possess both fixed income attributes and equity conversion potential, equivalent to a call option—if the company's stock price exceeds the exercise price, bondholders can convert to stock for profit. Only the bonds maturing in 2032 have a coupon rate above 1% (at 2.25%), while the other five bonds have rates below 1% or are zero, enabling the company to keep costs low and focus on accumulating bitcoins.

In October 2024, the company launched the "21/21 Plan," aiming to finance bitcoin purchases by issuing $21 billion in debt and $21 billion in equity. As financing progressed, the company introduced four types of perpetual preferred stock priced in dollars: STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD.

STRC preferred stock (commonly referred to as "Stretch") has attracted attention due to its variable dividend mechanism. It offers semi-monthly dividends, with the dividend rate adjusted monthly, aimed at keeping the stock price fluctuating around $100 par value.

The specific adjustment rules are:

• If the stock price is below $95, it is recommended to raise the dividend rate by 50 basis points;
• If the stock price is between $95 and $99, raise by 25 basis points;
• If the stock price is above $101, lower by 25 basis points.

At the end of June, STRC briefly dropped to about $73 (approximately 27% below par value), and the annualized dividend rate was then raised to 12%. Based on approximately 105 million shares currently, this would result in the company's annual dividend cost reaching $1.26 billion. If the remaining issuance capacity is fully utilized (corresponding to a scenario of 275 million shares), the cost would be higher. STRC also faces competition from Strive's SATA preferred shares, which currently have a dividend rate of 13%, potentially forcing Strategy to raise dividends further to attract investors.

In bankruptcy liquidation, convertible bonds and preferred stock have priority over assets, resulting in lower risk and relatively limited returns. Common stock (MSTR) has the greatest potential for upside due to the company's leveraged exposure to bitcoin, but it also carries the highest risk, positioned at the bottom of the capital structure.

The company focuses on tracking the "bitcoins per share" (BPS) metric, which assumes all convertible bonds, preferred stock, options, etc., are fully exercised, showing the amount of bitcoins per share (calculated in satoshis). However, the correlation between the MSTR stock price and bitcoin price is only 0.09, indicating weak correlation and suggesting other factors are driving the stock price.

One key factor is operational risk. The company must permanently pay dividends on preferred stock and repay the principal and interest on convertible bonds. However, holding bitcoin itself does not generate stable income, while the company’s software business generated only $124 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2026. How to continuously meet the growing demands of creditors while focusing on bitcoin accumulation?

The Shift from "Never Sell Bitcoin"

In February 2025, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor emphasized on social media "never sell your bitcoins." Prior to this, the company had only sold 704 bitcoins once in December 2022 to offset capital gains. From May 26 to May 31, 2026, the company announced the sale of 32 bitcoins; from June 29 to July 5, it sold another 3,588 bitcoins. These sales account for only 0.42% of the total holdings, generating approximately $218.5 million in revenue.

Selling bitcoins is not the company’s norm; why break the routine this time? The proceeds are primarily used to pay preferred stock dividends and replenish dollar reserves (which the company has established as a cash buffer to cover dividends). The small scale of the sale does not indicate that the company is in distress. Notably, in June, the company also purchased three batches of bitcoins, totaling 3,657 bitcoins.

Bitcoin Monetization and Reserve Management

The dollar reserve was established in December 2025, specifically for paying preferred stock dividends, mainly replenished through the issuance of common stock via an ATM program. As of June 28, the company expects the $2.55 billion reserve to cover all preferred stock dividends and bond interest for about 17.4 months.

Last week, the company formally approved the "Bitcoin Monetization Plan," authorizing the sale of up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin to replenish reserves. This indicates that the company is shifting towards more proactive balance sheet management, combining bitcoin sales with equity issuance.

In June 2026, Saylor pointed out at the Goldman Sachs Digital Assets Conference in London that bitcoin's role as collateral to create "digital credit" is becoming increasingly important. He mentioned that leveraging bitcoin as collateral has financed the acquisition of 175,000 bitcoins during market downturns. The company is exploring new ways to utilize bitcoin as a collateral asset or dividend payment resource.

Transaction Execution Optimization: Cross-Platform Sales Can Reduce Losses

If the company continues to use bitcoin sales to pay dividends, adopting a gradual and decentralized approach and executing across multiple exchanges can significantly improve actual transaction prices. The bitcoin monetization plan allows for the sale of up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin, equivalent to about 20,000 bitcoins at the current price of approximately $63,500, which accounts for about 2% of current holdings.

Cross-Exchange Trading Reduces Price Impact

The midpoint prices and order book depth vary across different exchanges, providing opportunities for arbitrage and indicating that decentralized trading can reduce the price impact of a single large order.

Around the time the company may sell 32 bitcoins (average transaction price $77,135), we compared the four most liquid bitcoin order books (with a 1% depth around the midpoint price). The Binance-USDT order book leads with approximately 2,900 bitcoins, which is double that of Coinbase. To push the price up by 0.1% to 1% from the midpoint, Binance-USDT needs around 300 bitcoins, while OKEX-USDT only requires 40.

There are also price differences among exchanges: the USDT quoted market is about $77,188, while the USD and USDC quoted markets are approximately $77,112 and $77,115, respectively. The price of bitcoin itself and the quoted currency both affect the final transaction price. Unifying liquidity across platforms and selecting the order books with the smallest price fluctuations can help achieve better prices for large sales like the recent 3,588 bitcoins.

Conclusion

Strategy's creditor obligations are continuously increasing, and bitcoin sales are becoming one of the regular means to meet these obligations. Just for STRC, the annual dividend cost could reach up to $3 billion. Maximizing the value of bitcoin sales helps to reduce the amount of bitcoins that must be sold to pay dividends.

In the short term, dollar reserves, the bitcoin monetization plan, and more proactive balance sheet management provide ample cushioning for the company. In the long term, developing bitcoin collateral and other financial products surrounding bitcoin holdings can reduce the pressure to sell on a large scale or dilute shareholder equity. Therefore, the sustainability of Strategy's capital structure depends not only on the price performance of bitcoin itself but also on whether the bitcoin-supported financial markets can mature further.