Strategy has accelerated its Bitcoin buys in the past few months, thanks to its highly sought-after preferred stock, Stretch [STRC]. In a recent interview, Strategy CEO Phong Le billed the viral STRC product as the treasury firm’s ‘iPhone moment.’
$STRC is our iPhone moment. $5B in cumulative revenue in 7 months, faster than virtually any product, including the iPhone.
For the uninitiated, Strategy has four types of preferred stocks in its lineup alongside the main common stock, MSTR. All of these are part of its capital structure, aimed at raising funds for its BTC buys.
So far, STRC, a monthly variable yield-paying product, has been most successful. It currently offers an 11.5% yield. As stated by Le, the product debuted last July and has crossed $5B in proceeds.
For Le, Stretch is the ‘fastest growing product’ and only second to BlackRock’s IBIT.
It took Apple iPhone two years to get to $5B in cumulative revenue. Google Ads took 4 years. The gold ETF took 5 years to get $5B in net assets. But it took two months for BlackRock’s IBIT to hit $5B. So, the only product that has grown faster than Stretch is IBIT.
Why 80% retail dominates STRC
On the massive 80% market share of retail in STRC, Le explained that this stock is less volatile compared to MSTR. As such, retail is comfortable with the 10%-12% monthly return with low volatility that STRC offers.
In contrast, MSTR can be 2x more volatile than BTC. Only institutional investors can stomach the wild swings, plus the potential for higher risk-adjusted returns for long-term holding, Phong Le noted. In fact, MSTR ownership is dominated by institutional investors at 60%.
Put differently, the products serve different markets with divergent risk tolerance, and Strategy has been able to capitalize on both sides.
That said, most of the proceeds from STRC sales end up buying BTC. On Tuesday, the 7th of April, STRC helped fund 936 BTC from a $64.3 million sale.
Separately, Strategy announced a 4.8K BTC purchase, bringing its overall holdings to 766,970 BTC. STRC funded nearly 70% of this latest buy. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Strategy has acquired 94K BTC, or 2.2x mined BTC.
Meanwhile, MSTR was up 5.6% and traded at $130 after Tuesday’s market hours. This followed BTC’s 6% surge to over $72K after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal.
Final Summary
- Strategy CEO hails STRC as its fastest-growing product, calling it their ‘iPhone moment’ after record $5B proceeds in 7 months.
- According to Phong Le, STRC is 80% dominated by retail because it is less volatile with a moderate monthly yield of over 10%.
