STRD IPO

Below is a concise yet complete chronology of Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy’s) 10 % Series A Perpetual “Stride” Preferred Stock (ticker STRD) initial public offering—from first whisper to trading debut—built entirely from this morning’s news-crawl.

Key take-aways (one-paragraph snapshot)

Michael Saylor’s company first floated a modest 2.5 million-share STRD IPO on 2 June 2025 (target: $250 million)  ; enormous demand let the underwriters upsise the deal four days later to 11.764 million shares at $85, raising ≈ $980 million  .  STRD pays a non-cumulative 10 % dividend, ranks junior to Strategy’s 8 % STRK and 9 % STRF preferreds, and carries no conversion rights—so it funds more Bitcoin without diluting common stock  .  Saylor hails STRD as the “fourth gear” in his Bitcoin-acquisition engine  , and the market lapped it up: the order-book cleared below par yet still implies an 11 – 12 % effective yield  .  Settlement landed today, 10 June 2025, so STRD now trades alongside MSTR, STRK and STRF.

1 · The opening salvo – 2 June 2025

TimeMilestoneSource
Pre-marketPress release: Strategy proposes 2.5 M shares of STRD at $100 face to raise $250 M, proceeds earmarked for “general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of bitcoin.”
Same morningBloomberg flash note echoes the filing; calls it “Perpetual Stride preferred stock.”
LunchtimeTraders push MSTR ≈ +1.5 % on the news (Refinitiv note).

Deal terms revealed in the shelf & S-1/424B5

  • 10 % stated dividend, non-cumulative and not mandatory.
  • $100 stated amount; liquidation preference never drops below $100.
  • No maturity, no conversion, redeemable at company option after five years.   

2 · Demand tsunami – 4–6 June 2025

  • Order book explodes.  Strategy boosts the raise from $250 M to “up to $1 B” as underwriters gauge demand  .
  • “Fourth gear” sound-bite.  Saylor tells investors STRD is the “fourth gear in our Bitcoin engine”—after common equity, converts, and the earlier STRF/STRK prefs  .

3 · Pricing & allocation – 5–6 June 2025

ParameterFinal figure
Shares11 ,764 ,700
Public price$85 (15 % below face)
Gross proceeds$1.00 B (net ≈ $979.7 M)

Press release confirming the pricing dropped late on 6 June  ; CoinDesk, Decrypt and The Block each ran headlines on the billion-dollar upsizing  .

4 · Today’s closing – 10 June 2025

  • Settlement clears; STRD now listed on Nasdaq.  Confirmation in Business-Wire note (embedded in Strategy newsroom)  .
  • Yield math.  At $85 purchase price, the $10 annual dividend equates to 11.76 % current yield—Barron’s calls it “a Bitcoin-backed high-yield play”  .
  • Coverage ratio.  With ~581 k BTC on the balance sheet (worth $60 B+), Barron’s and Bloomberg compute a ~6× asset cushion over all debt + prefs  .

5 · Capital-stack context & investor calculus

LayerYieldSeniorityIssued 2025
STRK8 %SeniorFeb
STRF9 %SeniorApr
STRD10 %JuniorJun

Non-cumulative structure means Strategy can skip dividends in a Bitcoin bear without default risk, a point SEC prospectus highlights  .  Investors therefore trade off higher yield for lower rank.

6 · Why investors bit anyway

  1. Yield > bonds/bank prefs by ~5 ppts  .
  2. Direct tether to Bitcoin upside without having to trade crypto.
  3. No common dilution—good for MSTR bulls  .
  4. Marketing sizzle of Saylor’s “fourth gear” narrative amplified on Binance Square & social feeds  .

7 · What’s next?

  • Dividend declarations: board discretion; first record date likely Q3 2025.
  • Possible at-the-market follow-on if BTC strength persists; prospectus allows additional STRD issuance  .
  • Common-share torque: every $1 B raised buys ≈ 9 k BTC at $110 k—lifting BTC-per-share for MSTR and sharpening its beta to Bitcoin.

Bottom line: Strategy’s STRD IPO went from a quarter-billion footnote to a billion-dollar, double-digit-yield juggernaut in four days, proving there’s still ravenous appetite for Saylor’s brand of leveraged Bitcoin exposure.  Settlement hits the tape today; now the real scorecard will be how fast that fresh $980 M turns into more sats—and how long the 10 % coupon keeps investors smiling.