Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) CEO Phong Le just bought $5,467 of his company’s STRC preferred shares for two of his children. The same man earned over $37 million running the company over the past three years, including $13.7 million in total executive compensation during fiscal 2025 alone.
Not that it makes the figure any better, but all three minor children technically held STRC before May 22. Together, they hold 186 STRC shares, worth $18,600 combined.
Alongside founder Michael Saylor, Le has spent the past year pitching STRC to retail investors as a supposed competitor to high-yield bank accounts and money markets. Le’s 11.5% dividend-paying, variable-rate stock has a market cap of $10.4 billion — about four-fifths of which is owned by non-accredited, retail investors.
Le disclosed his May 22 familial purchases on a SEC Form 4 dated May 26. He bought 50 STRC shares at $99.41 for Minor Child 1, plus 5 shares at $99.37 for Minor Child 3.
BitcoinTreasuries.NET celebrated the filing, “Bitcoiner dad securing the future for his kids.”
Quite the gift from the Strategy CEO who made $37 million
Strategy’s 2025 financials, filed with the SEC on April 28, list Le’s 2025 total compensation at $13,784,204. Specifically, his package breakdown was $1.1 million in salary, $1.235 million in bonus, $8.8 million in stock awards, and $2.38 million in option awards.
In other words, Le’s gift to his children works out to less than one one-hundredth of his 2025 stock awards alone.
His 2024 total was slightly higher, $15.74 million. That was mostly due to the higher closing price of Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, in 2024 versus 2025. In 2023, Le received $8 million.
STRC controversy goes mainstream
Le has also bought STRC for himself, although not in quantities that would come anywhere close to his level of compensation, let alone net worth. On March 19, he bought 2,509 STRC shares at $99.62, a $250,000 open-market trade.
Trivial relative to his personal fortune, he told podcaster Natalie Brunell that he wanted to “experience” STRC, likening its monthly dividends to a paycheck.
CEO whose common stock lost 58% in 12 months
STRC is a perpetual preferred share that pays a monthly dividend and is quasi-pegged at $100, even though it has traded as low as $90.52 per share on the Nasdaq. In its private debut, Strategy priced its public offering at $90 per share on July 24, 2025.
To encourage bids up to $100 per share, Strategy has hiked the monthly dividend rate seven times since launching STRC, from 9% to 11.5% today.
Le personally owns 8,009 STRC, 6,000 Strife, 4,500 Stride, and 22,923 MSTR common shares.
STRC closed at $99.47 on Tuesday, just below its $100 par. The company’s MSTR common stock has declined 11% over the past six months and 58% over the past 12 months.
The company’s massive stockpile of bitcoin (BTC) were acquired for an average $75,700 cost basis — slightly above the current market — excluding $1 billion of costs while running that acquisition strategy for the past six years.
