A stack of gold coins topped by a bitcoin in a dark hall lined with columns, fed by a stream of golden light rising from a blue-bordered share certificate on a marble floor
Original AI-generated illustration. It does not depict real data.

Perpetual Preferreds Have Funded 135,979 BTC, Fidelity Says

NodeWitness Team 6 min read

A plain-vanilla income product, the perpetual preferred, has become one of the main pipes through which bitcoin treasury companies buy coins. Fidelity tallies 135,979 BTC in a little over a year. The structure only pays off for issuers if bitcoin grows faster than the dividend it owes.

"For issuers, the strategy only works if the appreciation of the underlying asset outpaces the cost of yield." That line opens Fidelity Digital Assets' October 20 report, and the rest of it measures how far issuers have run with that bet [1]. Through October 5, 2026, bitcoin-focused perpetual preferreds had funded the purchase of 135,979 BTC, a market Strategy opened in July 2025 and others, including Strive, have since joined [1].

Against the chain, that is 0.68% of the 20,099,784 BTC issued up to block 971,930, by our node's count [5]. Against the 21 million cap it is 0.65%. Fidelity's own phrasing is "more than 0.5% of the total bitcoin supply" [1].

Spring buying outran issuance two to one

Most of it landed in three months. Fidelity counts more than 22,000 BTC in March 2026, more than 48,000 in April, including nearly 30,000 in a single week, and nearly 25,000 in May: more than 95,000 BTC on more than $7 billion raised [1].

We summed what the protocol issued over the same stretch. Applying the block subsidy schedule to the blocks our node saw from March 1 through May 31, 2026 gives 41,041 new BTC [5]. Perpetual preferreds bought more than twice the bitcoin the network created that spring.

Paired bars: from March to May 2026 the network issued 41,041 BTC while perpetual preferreds funded more than 95,000; from July 25, 2025 to October 5, 2026 the network issued 197,094 BTC while preferreds funded 135,979
NodeWitness. Issuance: block subsidy schedule applied to our node's blocks. Preferred-funded purchases: Fidelity Digital Assets.

The record week is visible in Strategy's filings. From April 13 to 19, the company bought 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion; STRC sales brought in $2,176.3 million net that week against $366.0 million from common stock [2]. Roughly 86% of the week's cash came from the preferred, consistent with Fidelity's "nearly 30,000."

Outside those three months the pace was far slower. Subtract the spring from the total and the rest of the series, July 2025 through February 2026 plus June to October 5, 2026, adds up to less than 41,000 BTC [1]. Over the whole window from July 25, 2025 to October 5, 2026, our node shows 197,094 BTC issued, so preferred-funded buying equals about 69% of new supply in that period [5].

The mechanics, and the 12% hurdle

Issuers want the preferred to trade close to its $100 par; above par they sell more shares at the market and buy bitcoin with the proceeds, Fidelity explains [1]. Strategy's listed series include STRF and STRD at 10%, STRK at 8%, and the variable-rate STRC [2]. STRC pays 12% a year on its $100 stated amount, reset monthly "to encourage trading around STRC's $100 par value" [3].

Run the numbers on one share. Each $100 raised buys $100 of bitcoin and creates a $12-a-year obligation with no end date. If bitcoin gains 12% in a year, the gain covers the dividend. If it gains less, or falls, the gap gets paid some other way, by issuing more stock or selling coins. At the $8,598.3 million of STRC notional Strategy reports, 12% works out to about $1,032 million a year for that series alone [3].

Two features matter more than the coupon. Strategy's preferreds "are not collateralized by the Company's bitcoin holdings and only have a preferred claim on the residual assets of the company" [3]. And the rate is a lever, not a promise: Strategy says it will keep STRC at 12% "until STRC has demonstrated sustained, healthy trading near $100 per share" [4]. Below par, new issuance stalls and the cost of attracting buyers rises.

Payment frequency keeps shortening too. Fidelity notes dividends now range from twice a month to daily [1], and Strategy has called an October 28 special meeting to approve daily STRC dividends starting in November [4].

How high is 12%?

A useful yardstick arrived on October 19. Coverage of J.P. Morgan Asset Management's 2027 assumptions puts bitcoin at 10% compound a year with 55% volatility. Using those inputs and a lognormal model, our calculation gives roughly a 45% chance that bitcoin compounds above 12% a year over ten years [6]. We unpack those numbers in our piece on JPMorgan's first bitcoin assumption.

Fidelity itself is careful here. These instruments "are not simply the high-yield equivalent of money market funds," it writes, and carry an extra layer of risk tied to bitcoin and to the issuers [1]. None of this is investment advice.

For scale, spot bitcoin ETPs absorbed 888,185 BTC in their first year after launching in January 2024 [1]. Preferreds are a second channel, not yet a rival.

What the chain can and can't show

The coins these companies buy are part of the same supply our node tracks, next to holders like Michael Saylor, who says he may burn his own keys, and estates still waiting to pay out, like Mt. Gox's. What the chain can't show is how a purchase was financed. That only appears in company filings, which is why Fidelity's figure rests on them. The October 28 vote is the next data point on whether spring's pace returns.

Who actually holds the bitcoin, by wallet size and by coin age, is on our Supply & Holders page, computed from our own node.

Sources

Labelled by type.

  1. Fidelity Digital Assets, Zack Wainwright, Perpetual Preferred Stock: The Newest Demand Catalyst in Bitcoin, October 20, 2026. 135,979 BTC as of October 5, monthly figures for March to May, more than $7 billion raised, ETP comparison and the issuer hurdle. (Primary, research report)
  2. Strategy Inc, Form 8-K dated April 20, 2026, SEC. Listed preferred series, STRC and common ATM sales, and bitcoin bought April 13 to 19. (Primary, SEC filing)
  3. Strategy, STRC Information, accessed October 23, 2026. 12% rate, $100 par, monthly reset, $8,598.3 million notional, no bitcoin collateral, dividend disclaimers. (Primary, issuer page)
  4. Strategy Inc, Form 8-K dated October 15, 2026, SEC. November STRC rate, daily dividends conditional on the October 28 special meeting, and the policy for holding the rate. (Primary, SEC filing)
  5. NodeWitness, issuance and supply from our node, endpoints /api/node/issuance (last final day October 20, 2026) and /api/market/hodl-waves (block 971,930, October 18, 2026), accessed October 23, 2026. Bitcoin issued and issuance by period. (Primary, own data)
  6. NodeWitness, own calculation, October 23, 2026, using the 20.9% mean and 55% volatility that Decrypt reports for JPMorgan's 2027 LTCMA, lognormal model. (Primary, own calculation on third-party figures)

More in Supply and holders

See all 13 articles in Supply and holders →

Last updated: October 26, 2026