Dividends up to 15%: Should You Bet on "Bitcoin Shares"?
Earn a steady income while remaining indirectly exposed to Bitcoin: that’s the promise of the preferred shares issued by Bitcoin treasury companies. Two‑digit dividends, regular payouts, and listing on regulated…
A preferred stock is a hybrid security, located between a bond and a common stock. It gives the right to a priority dividend, paid before any distribution to ordinary shareholders, but generally does not confer voting rights. The shares presented here are called perpetual: they have no maturity date and the issuer has no obligation to repay the capital. To recover your investment, the only solution is to resell your securities on the stock market at the market price.
This type of instrument has existed for a long time in traditional finance, particularly among American banks and listed real estate companies. The novelty lies in the use made of it by Bitcoin Treasury Companies which accumulate BTC: the capital raised is used exclusively to purchase Bitcoin.
Most of these shares are issued with a reference value of $100. It is on this amount that the dividend is calculated: a $100 share with a rate of 10% pays $10 per year regardless of its stock market price.
The stated objective of issuers is to have their securities listed as close as possible to this parity. When the price rises above $100, the company can issue new shares to the market and use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin.
And for example, for STRC, Strategy has additional leverage: the dividend rate is revised every month. An increase in the rate makes the security more attractive and should bring its price towards 100 dollars; a decline cools demand when the stock is trading higher.
The rate displayed applies to the value of $100, not the price you pay for the stock. So if you buy a $90 stock that pays $10 a year, your effective return is about 11.1%. Conversely, a stock purchased above $100 offers a return below the nominal rate.
This distinction is important: a very high yield on a security that prices well below $100 often reflects market distrust of the issuer.
Method: reports are grouped by the words of their headline and summary; each newsroom counts once; figures are read from the reports as published. Nothing here is written by an AI.
Finally, on the dividend side, not all securities protect the investor in the same way. A cumulative dividend that is not paid remains due: it accumulates and must be paid before any distribution to ordinary shareholders, while a non-cumulative dividend that is not paid is permanently lost. In both cases, payment remains subject to a decision by the board of directors and is not guaranteed.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Michael Saylor's company, was the first to massively exploit this mechanism and issued 5 different preferred shares, each with its own conditions. Strive, another US-listed Bitcoin treasury company, has launched its own products on the same model.
Here are the characteristics of the main Bitcoin preferred stocks (data from October 2026) 👇
*The priority rank indicates the order of reimbursement in the event of difficulty: the action ranked 1st is served before the others. All these shares remain subordinated to the debt of the issuer.
Dividends of 8-15% per year may seem more comfortable than the volatility of Bitcoin. For an investor who already holds a substantial crypto portfolio, the real question lies elsewhere: should these securities replace part of their exposure to Bitcoin, or simply supplement it?
With a preferred share, you receive a regular income, but your upside potential is capped: if Bitcoin doubles, your stock will in principle remain close to 100 dollars (except STRK, thanks to its convertibility).
With Bitcoin held directly, you capture the entire performance of the cryptocurrency, without risk linked to the issuer if you keep your private keys yourself. In return, you bear all the volatility of the market and the central question becomes that of timing: when to sell your bitcoins to secure part of your gains.
It is on this second approach that Crypto Stratège is based. The service, designed by the Cryptoast team, is aimed at investors who want to manage significant crypto wealth with method rather than emotion. It is based on a proprietary algorithm which identifies market entry and exit phases, and offers 2 model portfolios: a Prudent portfolio, invested 100% in Bitcoin or 100% in USDC depending on the market phases, and a Dynamic portfolio which can integrate altcoins from the top 100.
Members are also supported by specialists in taxation, notaries and asset management. Wil, the founder of the service, presents his method in a free video of around twenty minutes, in particular to know when to enter and exit the market by devoting around twenty minutes per week.
Strategy and Strive preferred shares must be purchased through a regular securities account (CTO). STRC, STRF and STRD are notably available at eToro, while STRE, listed in Luxembourg, is only accessible via a smaller number of brokers.
Discover the platforms to buy Bitcoin preferred shares 👇
If you prefer exposure to Strategy's common stock rather than its performance holdings, check out our guide to buying MicroStrategy (MSTR) stock.
In a study published on October 20, 2026, Fidelity Digital Assets calls preferred shares a new catalyst for demand for Bitcoin. The figures put forward by the crypto branch of the American manager illustrate the extent of the phenomenon.
According to Fidelity, Bitcoin preferred stock issuances enabled the purchase of 135,979 BTC as of October 5, 2026, or more than 0.5% of the total Bitcoin supply in just over a year.
Spring 2026 marked a peak in activity: more than 22,000 BTC purchased in March, more than 48,000 in April and almost 25,000 in May. Over these 3 months, more than 7 billion dollars were raised to buy Bitcoin.
Fidelity compares these products to spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the United States. The latter had accumulated 888,185 BTC during their 1st year, a significantly higher volume.
The comparison must, however, be nuanced, because the two products are not aimed at the same audience. A Bitcoin ETF offers direct exposure to the price of BTC, both up and down. A preferred share is aimed at an investor who is primarily looking for a regular return, close to that of a bond investment.
According to Fidelity, these new products represent approximately $12 billion, compared to nearly $150 trillion for the global bond market. Even marginal adoption by investors seeking yield could therefore weigh on the balance between supply and demand for Bitcoin.
Fidelity, however, is careful to point out that these securities are not the paid equivalent of a money market fund. Their success depends both on the long-term performance of Bitcoin and the financial strength of the companies that issue the preferred shares.
A return of 8 to 15% per year necessarily has a counterpart. These titles rely on some flimsy assumptions, and the June 2026 episode showed what happens when they no longer hold.
1. The price may move away from 100 dollars for a long time. The entire mechanism assumes an action that is priced close to its reference value. When this is no longer the case, the issuer can no longer issue new shares to buy Bitcoin, and whoever must resell takes a loss. After a drop of 26%, like that suffered by STRC at the end of June 2026, it takes more than 2 years of dividends to compensate.