Saylor's New Strategy for Buying Bitcoin

Author: thedefinvestor Translator: Shan Ouba, Jinse Finance

Bitcoin has performed quite well in the past few weeks. Admittedly, it has fallen from $74,000 to $69,000. But overall, since the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict, Bitcoin has outperformed stocks and gold on most trading days.

I believe one key reason is the massive buying pressure from Strategy recently.

In the past 19 days alone, Strategy, the world's largest Bitcoin treasury company led by Michael Saylor, has bought over $3 billion worth of Bitcoin. March 2026 is also expected to be the month with the largest increase in Bitcoin holdings by Strategy through STRC.

STRC is Michael Saylor's latest financial innovation, providing the funding for Strategy's massive Bitcoin buying spree. I believe it's a major driver of Bitcoin's relative strength. What exactly is STRC? STRC is a perpetual preferred stock issued by Strategy, promising high monthly dividends while maintaining a target price of $100. In a sense, it's like an interest-bearing stable asset with an annualized return of 11.5%. However, as I will explain below, it clearly carries risks. Buying STRC is equivalent to lending money to Saylor's Strategy company. The company raises funds by issuing STRC and then uses that money to buy more Bitcoin. The recent surge in STRC demand is the direct reason why Strategy has been able to buy so much BTC. How does the underlying mechanism work? As mentioned earlier, the target price for STRC is $100. All holders receive monthly dividends. When market demand is high and the STRC trading price is above $100, Strategy can issue new shares and sell them, raising more funds to buy BTC. When STRC's trading price falls below $100, Strategy can choose to increase its dividend to attract more buyers and bring the price back to par value. Initially, STRC's annualized dividend was 9%, which has now been increased to 11.5%. Simply put: Strategy borrows money from the public at a cost of 11.5% and uses that money to buy Bitcoin. Where does this money come from? A large portion comes from MSTR. When MSTR's stock price trades at a premium to the net value of its Bitcoin holdings, Strategy can issue more MSTR shares and sell them for a profit, thus obtaining another source of funding to support the entire mechanism. Initially, STRC was only listed on platforms such as Nasdaq and Robinhood. However, DeFi protocols like Apyx and Saturn have now tokenized their versions on-chain, further driving up demand. Is the STRC model truly sustainable? Strategy has approximately $2 billion in cash reserves, enough to cover all STRC dividend payments over the next 1-2 years. Therefore, the possibility of Strategy suddenly being unable to pay dividends in the short term is extremely low. However, a key point to remember is that the STRC price is not rigidly locked at $100. Even if you buy at $100, there's no guarantee you can sell at $100 later—although so far, it has always returned to that price after short-term dips. However, if Bitcoin enters a multi-year bear market, STRC demand could decline, potentially triggering a decoupling. Strategy's financial model heavily relies on MSTR maintaining a premium in its share price. Once the MSTR premium disappears, Strategy will lose a core funding channel and may be unable to pay STRC dividends without selling Bitcoin. This could put Strategy in a very unfavorable situation, so the risk certainly exists. However, for now, STRC is clearly creating considerable buying pressure on Bitcoin. If you hold BTC and are wondering why it has recently outperformed most assets, you should probably thank Michael Saylor.