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- Matt Cole, CEO of Strive, described Thursday’s preferred stock performance as the “toughest day ever” for digital credit products.
- Both Strive’s SATA and Strategy’s STRC fell further from their notional values, possibly as a result of unwinding of leveraged positions.
- The assets were designed to trade around $100, but closed the day below their marks at $97.71 and $88.59, respectively.
‘Digital credit’ preferred stock offerings from bitcoin treasury firms suffered their worst day ever on Thursday, according to Strive CEO Matt Cole, who described leveraged positions as the reason behind the price decline while defending the quality of the underlying credit instruments.
Cole’s comments come on the heels of Thursday’s price declines for SATA and STRC products, the preferred digital equity and credit products respectively from his company and Bitcoin Treasury giant strategyThey fall below their notional values, or the price near which they were designed to trade.
“Today was the toughest day in the history of digital credit,” Cole said Published on X Thursday afternoon. “What happened today was a leverage divestment event, not a deterioration in underlying credit quality.”
According to Cole, when investors see an attractive return opportunity with limited volatility, they often seek to increase their positions or augment their positions with borrowed capital.
Today was the toughest day in the history of digital credit.$STRC It traded as low as $82.50 before rebounding sharply. $sata It traded from the lows to the lows of the 1990s before also rebounding. It’s been a tough day for many investors.
What happened today was an influence…
– Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) June 18, 2026
“Many eventually decide that owning it is not enough. They borrow against it. They take advantage of it,” he wrote. “This works until it doesn’t work.”
Both SATA and STRC saw huge trading volumes on Thursday, having the second and fourth largest trading days of $153 million and $941 million. respectively, according to the data Shared by Strive Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton.
These numbers, when compared to the much smaller daily trading volumes of larger preferred equity instruments such as JPMorgan’s JPM.PD and Blackrock’s PFF, make unleveraging more likely, Walton suggested.
“It appears that leverage has been erased, fundamentals are sound, and instruments have absorbed the flow and found buy orders throughout the day.” He posted on X.
When asked on X for more information about where SATA’s leverage was concentrated, Walton replied Strive is “aware of some anecdotal sources” and is working on a “deeper post-mortem analysis” that it plans to share.
Both SATA and STRC were designed to trade at around $100 per share, but during Thursday’s trading, SATA’s price fell to a low of $92.88 while STRC fell further, finding a daily low of $82.53 before closing at $88.59.
Although it is not uncommon for STRC to trade below its par value after the ex-dividend date, analysts said Decryption On Thursday there appeared to be uncertainty about how the company intends to pay its dividend Which causes “persistent weakness.”
Digital credit products, designed to help Strive and Strategy add funds to Bitcoin accumulation, are here Attracted more ordinary investors Seek lower profits and volatility than a company’s common stock or exposure to BTC itself.
But questions about how dividend obligations will be met have led to some doubts about the financial engineering behind the products. Last month, strategy She sold 32 bitcoins for $2.5 million after Michael Saylor telegraphed the moveWhich proves that his company can break out of the “never sell” mentality if necessary.
However, despite strengthening its cash reserves alongside Continuous company messages about their ability to pay, The strategy’s common stocks and preferred stocks continue to underperform.
At the close of trading on Thursday, MSTR fell another 3.46% to $112.53, and is now down more than 32% in the last month of trading. Strive (ASST) shares fell 3.8% to $14.85, moving its monthly losses to nearly 6%. US markets are closed on Friday for the federal holiday that falls on June 10.
A Strive representative did not immediately respond Decryption Request for comment.
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