Peter Schiff Says Strategy’s STRC Plan Hurts MSTR Shareholders

Schiff Targets Strategy’s STRC Priority

Selling pressure intensified around Strategy Inc. (Nasdaq: MSTR) on July 31 after the company released its second-quarter earnings and Peter Schiff challenged its stated objective of keeping STRC near its $100 stated value. The criticism shifted attention from bitcoin accumulation toward whether Strategy’s preferred-stock commitments could weaken returns, liquidity, or capital access for common shareholders.

Schiff wrote in an X post on July 31 that Strategy’s STRC policy creates a direct conflict between preferred investors and holders of the company’s publicly traded common stock:

“Bitcoin is breaking down today, with $MSTR leading the way, down 7% following Saylor’s morning X post that Strategy’s ‘primary corporate objective’ isn’t to maximize shareholder value but ‘for $STRC to trade at $99–$100 over time.’ In other words, MSTR shareholders are screwed.”

His conclusion represents an investment opinion, while Strategy describes the STRC objective as part of its broader digital-credit capital framework designed to stabilize its capital structure. The disagreement centers on whether protecting preferred securities strengthens the company’s funding model or redirects resources that could otherwise support MSTR shareholders.

Preferred-Stock Support Reshapes Strategy’s Capital Plan

Company disclosures describe STRC’s variable dividend and $100 trading objective. STRC is Strategy’s Nasdaq-listed perpetual preferred stock, marketed as Stretch, which currently pays a 12% annual cash dividend in semi-monthly installments. Its variable dividend rate is adjusted monthly to encourage the shares to trade near their $100 par value and reduce price volatility. The structure gives Strategy another financing channel for acquiring bitcoin, while requiring management to balance dividend obligations, liquidity reserves, preferred-stock pricing, and common-share performance.

A broader digital-credit capital framework authorizes as much as $1 billion in digital-credit securities repurchases and another $1 billion for possible MSTR share repurchases. The company also established a larger dollar reserve and outlined conditions allowing bitcoin sales, creating several tools for supporting preferred dividends, market pricing, and corporate flexibility.

Investors Weigh Dilution Against Financial Stability

Management expanded its dollar reserve to approximately $3.75 billion, providing an estimated 2.1 years of preferred-dividend and interest-expense coverage while repurchasing 288,930 STRC shares for about $25 million. Those actions illustrate Strategy’s effort to strengthen its preferred-stock structure while preserving financial flexibility, although investors remain divided over the long-term impact on common shareholders.

Schiff, a longtime bitcoin critic, has repeatedly argued that Strategy’s use of preferred securities and capital raises could dilute common shareholders while increasingly benefiting creditors and preferred investors. Other market participants have reached different conclusions. Grayscale Research argued that Strategy’s $216 million bitcoin sale reduced financing risk and that STRC’s subsequent recovery reflected improving market confidence in the company’s capital structure and financial obligations.

The next test will arrive as Strategy balances future bitcoin purchases, preferred-dividend commitments, possible repurchases, and market pressure on its common shares. Any additional bitcoin sales or reserve changes could show whether STRC support strengthens the wider capital structure or intensifies Schiff’s concerns about MSTR shareholders.