How Daily Preferred Dividends Work: Strategy’s STRC Proposal and Strive’s SATA

A preferred stock pays a set dividend on a stated amount, usually $100 a share, before anything goes to common shareholders. Two dates decide who gets each payment: the record date, when the company checks who holds the shares, and the payment date, when the cash arrives. Until now, Strategy’s STRF, STRK and STRD have had one record date a quarter (March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15), with payment at the end of that month.² STRC began with monthly dividends when it was first sold in July 2025³⁴ and moved to twice a month in June 2026, with record dates on the 15th and the last day of each month.²⁴ Daily dividends cut the wait between those dates to a day or so. Both companies say the total paid over a month stays the same. Only its timing changes.

Strive changed the terms of its variable-rate SATA preferred in May 2026, moving it from monthly to daily dividends. The last monthly dividend ($1.0833 a share, record date June 1) was paid on June 15, and daily payments began on June 16.⁶ Each month the board declares a rate and splits the month’s dividend, $100 × the annual rate ÷ 12, equally across that month’s business days. The holder of record at the close of the previous business day is paid. No record date falls on a weekend or holiday, so a Monday payment is the same size as any other.⁷ November 2026 has 19 business days, so at 13.00% Strive declared $0.0571 a day, $1.0849 for the month (rounded up from $1.0833).⁵ With 14,030,176 SATA shares outstanding at October 9, each payment comes to about $0.80 million (Bittery’s calculation).⁸ On October 13 Strive also changed SATA’s definition of a business day so that Saturdays and Sundays could count in future, if the New York Fed, Nasdaq and the Depository Trust Company allow it. It said it does not expect its near-term cadence to change.⁵

Strategy’s proposal differs in one main way. Every calendar day, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays included, would be a record date, and each day’s dividend would be paid on the next business day.² So the payment sizes vary instead of the record dates. In November 2026 a normal weekday pays $0.03 or $0.04 a share, while the Mondays after a weekend pay $0.10 for three record dates, and the days after Veterans Day and Thanksgiving pay $0.06 for two. The month still adds up to $1.00.¹ Using the up to 89.3 million STRC shares outstanding at October 11 implied by Strategy’s filings, that is about $2.7 million on a $0.03 day and about $8.9 million on a $0.10 Monday (Bittery’s calculation). The new terms would also let Strategy name extra days as business days for payments, “including potentially seven days a week, as market infrastructure evolves”, with advance notice.²

Under the proposed terms, each month is split into two halves (the 1st to the 15th, and the 16th to the month’s end), and each half earns one-24th of the annual rate. That is spread evenly over the half’s calendar days.² At 12.00% on $100, each half of November earns $0.50, or $0.0333 a day over 15 days. Every day’s amount except the last is rounded down to the nearest cent, with the fraction carried into the next day. The last day of each half is not rounded, so the half pays its full amount.² That produces the pattern in the table: $0.03, $0.03, then $0.04 when the carried fractions reach a cent, and $0.04 on the 15th and the 30th.¹ SATA avoids the rounding question by paying the same four-decimal amount every business day.⁵

The change needs “the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the voting power of all outstanding Common Stock”. Holders of record at September 25, 2026 can vote: 402,337,658 class A shares with one vote each and 19,640,250 class B shares with ten votes each.² On that count, the class B shares carry about 32.8% of the votes (Bittery’s calculation). Holders of the preferred stocks themselves, including STRC, do not vote on this proposal.² Because the majority is of all outstanding voting power, Strategy’s voting video tells shareholders that “not voting counts as a no”. Online voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on October 27, and the results are due at the special meeting on October 28.⁴

If approved, STRC’s last twice-monthly dividend is the one payable October 31 (record date October 15). Its first daily payment would be on November 2, for the November 1 record date. STRF, STRK and STRD would keep their quarterly schedule through the December 31 payment, then switch: their first daily payment would be on January 4, 2027, covering record dates January 1, 2 and 3.² STRE, Strategy’s euro-denominated preferred, which is not listed in the US, is not part of the proposal.² Strategy has also declared a regular twice-monthly STRC dividend payable November 15 (record date October 31) as a fallback. If the vote fails, or the new STRC terms are not in effect by 12:01 a.m. Eastern on November 1, the November 15 dividend is paid instead of the daily ones, and Strategy expects to keep paying twice a month. The filing says the two will never both be payable.¹

Strive’s second preferred, the 15.00% Series A Perpetual SATS, priced on October 15 at $90 a share (7,000,000 shares) and is due to settle on October 20.⁹¹⁰ It follows SATA’s method: each month’s dividend is divided into equal instalments, one for each regular payment date, paid every business day to holders of record on the business day before. Strive expects to declare the first payment for November 9, 2026. If declared in full it would be $0.8710 a share, covering dividends from the October 20 closing.¹⁰ On 7,000,000 shares that first payment would be about $6.1 million (Bittery’s calculation). The yield SATS pays at prices other than $100 is set out in Strive’s SATS Preferred IPO, Explained.

Strategy’s proxy says the change does not raise or lower the total dividends, the rates or its overall payment obligations.² The reasons it gives are shorter waits before holders can reinvest, less of a price drop around each record date, and a better chance of keeping STRC trading “at or close to its stated amount of $100 per share”.² Strive’s May presentation makes a similar case. It puts the gain from compounding at about 7.6 basis points a year at 13.00%, an effective annual yield of 13.8790% if every daily payment is reinvested against 13.8032% if paid monthly, and calls this “modest on its own”.⁷ In an interview Strategy filed as proxy material, its director of investor relations, Chaitanya Jain, said a Nasdaq rule on the gap between declaring a dividend and its record date (at least 10 days) had held up a daily schedule. He said Strive’s approach of declaring each month’s rate in advance showed a way round it.⁴ On tax, Strategy expects the November daily STRC dividends to be treated as non-taxable returns of capital, up to a holder’s tax basis.¹ Strive says SATA’s are generally a tax-deferred recovery of capital, because it has no accumulated earnings and profits.⁵ Rates, amounts outstanding and payment frequencies for every bitcoin-backed preferred are listed in Bitcoin-Backed Preferred Stocks by Dividend Rate and Payment Frequency.