Powered by Mode Mobile
MarketMunchiesπŸ”
LIVE
EUR/USD1.1759●▲ +0.32%Bitcoin73,345●▲ +3.67%Ethereum2,257.9●▲ +3.01%S&P 500742.71●▲ +0.20%NASDAQ714.51●▲ +0.19%Gold3,238.4●▲ +1.82%Oil (WTI)61.42●▼ βˆ’2.15%GBP/USD1.3124●▲ +0.18%EUR/USD1.1759●▲ +0.32%Bitcoin73,345●▲ +3.67%Ethereum2,257.9●▲ +3.01%S&P 500742.71●▲ +0.20%NASDAQ714.51●▲ +0.19%Gold3,238.4●▲ +1.82%Oil (WTI)61.42●▼ βˆ’2.15%GBP/USD1.3124●▲ +0.18%
Crypto

Bitcoin Is Sliding. The Companies Built Around It Are Feeling It Most.

Bitcoin's decline is painful for crypto investors. But it is more revealing for the companies that turned Bitcoin exposure into a capital-markets machine β€” because that machine now has to work in reverse.

Market MunchiesΒ·Jun 25, 2026Β·4 min read
Bitcoin Is Sliding

When Bitcoin was climbing toward $126,000 late last year, the crypto-treasury trade looked brilliant: issue stock and preferred securities, buy Bitcoin, let the rising coin price lift the stock, then repeat. Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, became the model. Now it is being tested hard in the other direction.

Bitcoin has shed more than half its value from its October 2025 all-time high and is now trading around $61,000, down more than a quarter from where it started the year. The companies that structured themselves to amplify Bitcoin exposure are now amplifying the losses β€” and some are facing uncomfortable questions about how they will meet obligations designed around a very different price environment.

How the trade worked β€” and why it's straining

Strategy's model was straightforward in concept. The company issued equity, preferred stock, and convertible debt, used the proceeds to buy Bitcoin, and marketed its STRC preferred security to income-seeking investors as a high-yield preferred instrument designed to trade near par. When Bitcoin rose, the dividend obligations looked trivially small against the returns. The premium investors paid for Strategy's stock over the underlying value of its Bitcoin holdings gave the company a way to keep raising money and keep buying more.

That premium has collapsed along with the coin.

Strategy currently holds approximately 847,000 Bitcoin, acquired at an average price of roughly $75,651 per coin. With Bitcoin near $61,000, the company is sitting on an unrealized loss of more than $12 billion. More pressingly, STRC has slid from its intended $100 par value to approximately $82.50, pushing its effective yield above 14%. In traditional fixed income, a yield at that level signals that the market is pricing in meaningful stress risk.

On June 23, research firm CryptoQuant published a pointed analysis: Strategy's annualized preferred dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled to approximately $1.2 billion in 2026, while its US dollar cash reserve has fallen 38% over the same period. CryptoQuant said the reserve needs to reach roughly $2.8 billion β€” about double its current level β€” before STRC can realistically recover toward par.

In a notable shift, Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin earlier this month to fund preferred stock distributions β€” its first sale since 2022 and a break from chairman Michael Saylor's long-standing position. The company has since moved to rebuild its cash position, raising $335 million through stock sales last week and routing $300 million into its reserve. Cash now stands at $1.4 billion, roughly halfway to where CryptoQuant says it needs to be.

The broader pressure

The stress is not confined to Strategy. Crypto-linked stocks often trade like leveraged expressions of Bitcoin sentiment, even when their business models differ. Coinbase is exposed to crypto trading volumes and market activity. Robinhood has meaningful crypto-related revenue. Miners like MARA and Riot are more directly tied to Bitcoin's price because their revenue depends on the value of the coins they produce β€” and falling prices compress the economics of mining at exactly the moment when cost structures are fixed.

The deeper problem

Strategy's capital structure was built around a flywheel: issue stock and preferred at a premium to the underlying Bitcoin value, use proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, which in turn justified the premium. That flywheel powered the stock to extraordinary heights during the bull run.

It has nearly stopped. With Strategy's stock trading near or below the value of its Bitcoin holdings, the economics of issuing equity to buy more Bitcoin no longer work the same way. The company is now managing an unrealized loss of more than $12 billion, a preferred stock at a material discount to par, and dividend obligations that have nearly quadrupled in a year.

The stress is not just Bitcoin falling. It is what happens when a volatile asset gets wrapped in a financing structure that depends on confidence staying high.

What to watch

  • STRC: Strategy's preferred stock is the clearest stress signal. Recovery toward par would ease pressure; another leg lower would intensify it.
  • Cash reserves: CryptoQuant says Strategy needs roughly $2.8 billion before STRC can recover sustainably. Watch whether new capital goes to cash or back into Bitcoin.
  • Bitcoin's trend: Around $61,000, Bitcoin is sitting near a key technical level. A sustained break lower would pressure the whole crypto-equity complex.
  • Treasury imitators: The more companies copied Strategy near Bitcoin's peak, the more painful the current reversal becomes across the sector.

The bottom line

Strategy's situation is the clearest case study in what happens when a capital-markets machine built around a volatile asset has to run in the wrong direction. A company that issued securities to accumulate Bitcoin is now managing a large unrealized loss, a preferred stock at a meaningful discount to par, and obligations that were priced for a world where the coin stayed much higher.

Whether this is a painful shakeout or the beginning of a longer reckoning depends almost entirely on where Bitcoin goes next.

Sources