The world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin needs to cool it with the purchases and focus on building up cash. That’s the blunt message from CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno.
Strategy’s preferred stock, Stretch (STRC), hit a record low of $79.85 — well below its $100 par value. The stock offers an 11.5% annual dividend, but investors are getting nervous because the company’s cash cushion has been shrinking fast.
Here’s the numbers that matter: at the start of 2026, Strategy had enough cash to cover over seven years of dividend payments. Now that buffer has dwindled to just 14 months. The company’s annualized dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled since January to $1.2 billion, thanks to repeated rate hikes on the preferred stock.
Moreno’s advice is straightforward — Strategy needs to rebuild its USD reserve to cover at least 24 months of dividends. He also wants to see a more systematic approach to when the company buys Bitcoin and, critically, a disciplined framework for when it sells.
JPMorgan analysts have already flagged similar concerns, tying Strategy’s fate more to the dollar than to Bitcoin itself. The firm did pivot to accumulating cash for three straight weeks recently, but Moreno says it’s not enough.
Strategy’s common shares aren’t doing great either: the price tanked over 10% to a 27-month low of $92.28, a roughly 80% drop from their peak. Investors got spooked when the company sold 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million last month — tiny relative to its holdings, but a signal that raised uncomfortable questions about whether Strategy can keep propping up its own position.
