The one metric investors are overlooking in Michael Saylor’s Strategy

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email The one metric investors are overlooking in Michael Saylor’s Strategy Increased preferred-equity issuance and surging STRC trading volumes are reshaping how Strategy's common stock trades. By James Van Straten | Edited by Sheldon Reback Apr 13, 2026, 10:16 a.m. Make preferred on Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor (CoinDesk) What to know : Amplification, defined as debt plus preferred equity divided by bitcoin reserves, has risen to 33%, meaning a growing layer of senior claims sits ahead of equity, reducing the buffer for MSTR holders. Trading of the STRC preferred stock has surged from low single digits to 20% of MSTR volume. Higher amplification and the growing STRC activity make the structure harder to manage, increasing downside sensitivity and reliance on equity issuance, which can weigh on performance versus bitcoin. Stock market investors may be overlooking one interesting metric at Strategy (MSTR), the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin BTC $ 70,731.92 : the capital market measure known as amplification. Amplification compares the size of the company's total debt and debt-like instruments, such as preferred stock, to its stash of 766,970 BTC. As amplification rises, like leverage, it adds more risk to the company, making the common stock more sensitive to bitcoin price movements. Investors have tended to focus on the price of bitcoin and the multiple to net asset value (mNAV) premium when evaluating the company. But if amplification, currently about 33% , increases, it may become the dominant driver of risk. At the top of Strategy's capital structure is convertible debt, about $8.25 billion outstanding, the most senior claim. Below that are a number of preferred stocks, including STRC, STRK, STRD and STRF, with roughly $10.3 billion in notional value, according to the MSTR dashboard. At the bottom sits common equity, MSTR, which absorbs all residual upside and downside. STRC has been designed to become the primary vehicle for bitcoin accumulation for the company. Senior to equity and junior to debt, STRC pays an 11.5% annual dividend, distributed monthly in cash. The volume of STRC, once negligible and in the low single digits relative to MSTR, has surged to around 20% on a weekly basis occasionally spiking above 25%. According to the MSTR dashboard, on Friday, MSTR traded $1.7 billion, well below its $2.5 billion 30-day average, while STRC traded $526 million, roughly double its $259 million average, almost 50% of MSTR’s volume in one day. STRC Volume as % of MSTR Volume (Investing.com) Higher STRC activity makes it harder to manage amplification without relying on common stock equity issuance, which can weigh on performance versus bitcoin. Over the past 30 days, the bitcoin price is relatively unchanged, while MSTR has fallen 11%. At lower amplification, MSTR behaves like leveraged BTC. At higher levels, it becomes harder to manage, on top of roughly $1.12 billion in annual obligations. Bitcoin News MicroStrategy More For You StarkWare cuts jobs in reorganization as Starknet revenue plunges 99% from peak By Sam Reynolds | Edited by Jamie Crawley 28 minutes ago Days after unveiling a quantum-safe bitcoin method, a StarkWare researcher was tapped to lead a new applications unit as Layer-2 revenue dries up. What to know : StarkWare is restructuring into two independent business units and cutting staff after revenue on its Starknet network fell more than 99% from a late-2023 peak. CEO Eli Ben-Sasson told employees the company will pivot from a pure Ethereum-scaling infrastructure focus to building in-house, revenue-generating products that competitors cannot easily replicate. 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