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Phong Le put his own money on the line. MicroStrategy’s CEO bought 11,000 shares of the company’s Stretch preferred stock through his family trust on June 22, spending just under $1 million at a moment when Bitcoin was sliding and plenty of people were questioning whether the whole corporate crypto treasury playbook still made sense.
The filing puts the purchase price at an average of $90.80 per share, for a total of roughly $998,756. The stock in question — ticker STRC — is MicroStrategy’s preferred share class, designed to trade close to its $100 par value. Le framed the buy as a long-term hold, not a trade. And per Arkham, the on-chain tracker, the position has already clawed back to roughly break-even as STRC’s price drifted back toward par. Not a home run. Not a disaster. Just kind of flat, for now.
STRC Dividend Jumps to 12%
The preferred stock wasn’t always this attractive on yield. MicroStrategy bumped the annual dividend on STRC up to 12% — it started at 9% back when the stock launched. That’s a meaningful jump, and it’s probably part of why the price stabilized. A 12% annual dividend on a stock meant to sit near $100 par is a real number, and it gives income-focused buyers a reason to hold rather than sell.
MicroStrategy has also put a Bitcoin sales policy in place to potentially fund those dividends. The company hasn’t spelled out exactly how that works in practice, but the implication is clear enough: if Bitcoin needs to be sold to keep preferred shareholders paid, that’s on the table. The preferred stack is now valued at over $13 billion. That’s a big number to service.
MicroStrategy holds 818,334 BTC as of the latest disclosures, making it the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world by a wide margin. Michael Saylor kicked off the treasury strategy in 2020, and Le has kept it going since taking over as CEO. The company reported a $12.5 billion quarterly loss tied to Bitcoin’s price decline — a brutal number, though accounting rules for digital assets can make those figures swing hard in both directions depending on the quarter.
Le’s Bitcoin Philosophy: Fixed Supply, No Government Interference
Le hasn’t been quiet about why he believes in Bitcoin. He’s made the case publicly that Bitcoin is basically a form of money governed by transparent, fixed rules — a fixed supply, no central authority that can print more of it, no government that can devalue it overnight. He’s compared it to the American Constitution in that sense: a set of rules that don’t bend to whoever happens to be in power.
He’s also tied it to something personal. Le has spoken about his family’s escape from Vietnam, and he connects that experience directly to the idea of individual financial control — the ability to hold wealth that no government can confiscate or inflate away. It’s not just an investment thesis for him. It’s kind of a worldview.
He sees Bitcoin becoming a global reserve asset within a decade. That’s an aggressive forecast. But Le isn’t alone in making it — a growing number of institutional voices have said similar things over the past few years, even if they won’t always say it on the record.
He’s also pointed to Goldman Sachs and Citi adding Bitcoin-related services as evidence that the broader financial system is shifting. Not fringe anymore. Mainstream banks are in, at least partially, and Le reads that as validation.
Some skeptics push back. Bitwise, for one, has said MicroStrategy is no longer the leading buyer of Bitcoin — other corporate treasuries have stepped up during the slump, accumulating while prices are down. Whether that’s a sign of competition or just a healthy broadening of the market probably depends on who you ask. MicroStrategy’s dominance as a buyer isn’t what it was in 2020 and 2021, when Saylor was pretty much the only corporate player doing this at scale.
But other corporate Bitcoin treasuries keep buying during the dip. That’s worth noting. The strategy Saylor started hasn’t died — it’s spread. Companies that might have watched from the sidelines a few years ago are now putting Bitcoin on their balance sheets. The playbook got copied.
Le’s personal buy into STRC fits neatly into all of this. It’s a signal, whether he intended it that way or not. A CEO spending $998,756 of his own money on his company’s preferred stock — through a family trust, not a corporate account — is the kind of move that gets noticed. It says he thinks the dividend holds, the par value holds, and Bitcoin doesn’t crater from here.
Unclear whether it will play out that way. Bitcoin’s price movements are what they are — unpredictable in the short run, and MicroStrategy’s financials are tightly wound around wherever BTC trades on any given quarter-end. A bad quarter can produce a $12.5 billion paper loss. A good quarter can flip that.
The STRC dividend sits at 12%. The par value target is $100. Le paid $90.80. The math on break-even isn’t complicated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many shares did Phong Le buy and at what price?
Le bought 11,000 shares of MicroStrategy’s STRC preferred stock at an average price of $90.80 per share, totaling approximately $998,756, purchased through his family trust on June 22.
What is the current dividend rate on MicroStrategy’s STRC preferred stock?
The annual dividend on STRC was raised to 12%, up from its initial rate of 9% when the stock first launched.
