Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has slashed its $20.33 billion $STRK at-the-market (ATM) offering on March 22 after selling just 5% of its 269.8 million share goal.
The bitcoin (BTC) treasury company has slashed the number of authorized $STRK shares by 85% from 269.8 million to 40.3 million, and has sold only 14.02 million.
Switching focus, the company simultaneously quadrupled authorized shares of its quasi-pegged preferred, STRC, as well as a massive increase of its MSTR common stock ATM.
The market barely noticed.
Strategy’s own X account announced the filing by trumpeting new $21 billion STRC and $21 billion MSTR authorizations. It didn’t mention the sunsetting of $STRK — the company’s first dividend-paying preferred public share offering — on social media.
Indeed, in January 2025, Michael Saylor’s Strategy announced that it had raised $563.4 million in $STRK after targeting just $250 million for that capital raise.
At the time, publications called that raise “upsized” or “oversubscribed,” even though Saylor offered a 20% discount on liquidation preference to manufacture $STRK’s so-called oversubscription.
$700 million sold of a $21 billion goal
By March 2025, Strategy had authorized the sale of up to $21 billion in 8% perpetual preferred shares convertible into MSTR at $1,000 per share. A year later, approximately $20.3 billion of that capacity remained unsold.
Demand was weak from the start and ended in a 94.8% shortcoming: 14.02 million shares sold of 269.8 million authorized.
As of March 22, 2026, $20.33 billion $STRK remained unsold.
Strategy priced $STRK’s initial offering at $80, a 20% discount to its $100 liquidation preference, raising roughly $563 million selling 7.3 million shares from unsurprisingly motivated buyers whose positions had gained 20% within three weeks as $STRK traded up to $100 per share.
Barron’s correctly reported on lackluster $STRK demand before shares even debuted, with Strategy offering steep discounts to induce buying.
Quarterly reductions in $STRK demand
Within a few months, $STRK sales soon slowed to a trickle. Indeed, by the end of Q1 2025, Strategy had only sold $765 million, or just $202 million more across two months than it had sold in January.
By the end of Q2, $STRK notional had increased 59% to $1.22 billion. That would be its final quarter of substantial growth.
At the end of Q3, the total face value of $STRK was $1.36 billion, a mere 11% increase from Q2, and by the end of Q4, $STRK notional was $1.4 billion, a mere 2.7% increase.
As of today, $STRK’s notional has increased just 0.3% or $3.9 million more year-to-date.
By the time the company pulled the plug this week, $STRK had produced a notional value of $1.4 billion after the company sold roughly 14 million shares out of an authorized 269.8 million.
Strategy raised about 95% less from $STRK than it could have, had investors wanted to its buy its fully authorized quantity of shares.
Read more: Strategy fails to list options on its flagship preferred, $STRK
Trading 25% below par
Yesterday, $STRK closed for trading at $75.20. That gives its 14 million outstanding shares a market value of roughly $1.05 billion, $348 million below the notional on which Strategy pays its 8% dividend.
The stock briefly rallied above $129 in July 2025, when optimism around the embedded MSTR conversion feature peaked. It’s since lost 42% of that value.
The conversion option lets holders swap into MSTR at $1,000. MSTR trades near $140, making that option deeply out of the money and nearly worthless.
Strategy now owes roughly $112 million per year in $STRK dividends on the shares it did manage to sell. To service those dividends, the company posted a $5.4 billion operating loss in fiscal year 2025.
$STRK dividends, by design, never stop.
Sunsetting the first preferreds
Saylor didn’t kill $STRK entirely.
The same 8-K registered a new $STRK ATM for up to $2.1 billion, a 90% reduction. With 40.3 million shares now authorized and 14 million outstanding, about 26 million shares of issuance remains.
Although the company might sell some more $STRK in the future, it seems unlikely given the above quarterly trend toward zero.
The real emphasis at the company is on STRC, Strategy’s variable-rate and quasi-pegged preferred paying 11.5% annualized dividends. STRC raised over $1.18 billion in net proceeds in a single week of March 2026.
That one week dwarfed $STRK’s entire ATM output over twelve months.
Strategy wants investors focused on STRC. The company’s first preferred offering, however, was supposed to raise up to $26.9 billion and will instead be remembered for the $25 billion it never raised.
