SATS: Strive's Fixed 15% Preferred, and Where It Sits

Strive priced its second preferred stock on 15 October: 7 million shares of the 15.00% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock at $90 each, about $630 million gross. The launch on 13 October was for 5 million shares, so the deal was upsized by 40% in two days. The dividend is 15% of a $100 base, which is $15 a share a year. Buyers paid $90, so what they earn on their own money is 16.7%. That is the highest headline rate of any preferred I track, which raises the obvious question: what is Strive doing to get it, and what are you taking on in exchange?

I've read the 424B5 prospectus supplement on SEC EDGAR, and everything below about the terms comes from it. The Treasury and corporate bond yields come from FRED, and the preferred and ETF yields are worked out from Friday's closing prices. The prospectus says Strive has applied to list SATS on the Nasdaq Global Market and settles the offering on 20 October, so check the live price on the SATS hub rather than anything I quote here.

What SATS is

SATS is a perpetual preferred stock. It has no maturity date, and Strive can't call it back whenever it likes. The 15% is fixed for life: it doesn't move with interest rates or with the share price. That is the main difference from SATA, Strive's first preferred, whose rate Strive adjusts to try to hold the price between $95 and $105 (it is 13% at the moment). The other terms that matter:

• Cumulative, but no interest on missed payments. Dividends build up at 15% of $100 whether or not they are declared. If Strive skips some, they stay owed, but the unpaid amount doesn't earn extra. Payment is "when, as and if declared" by the board, which is the standard wording and it means the board is never forced to pay.
• Paid on every business day, in cash. The first payment is expected on 9 November and will include everything accrued since closing.
• An 18-month reserve. At closing Strive says it will add $22.50 a share, 18 months of dividends, to its dividend reserve. On 7 million shares that is about $157.5 million, held in cash and securities.
• Hard to redeem. Strive can only call the whole issue if fewer than 25% of the shares ever issued are still outstanding, or if a tax event happens. It can't simply refinance when rates fall, which is the usual risk with a high-coupon preferred.
• A put on a takeover. If a "fundamental change" happens, holders can make Strive buy the shares back at the $100 stated amount plus unpaid dividends. Anyone who paid $90 would make about 11% on that.
• No say in how Strive is run. Voting rights are limited to changes to SATS's own terms and certain mergers. Missing dividends doesn't give holders the right to elect directors.

Where it sits in Strive's capital structure

This is the part Strive's prospectus spells out most clearly. SATS ranks below SATA and above the common stock, and below any debt Strive takes on later. In a liquidation, and in the order dividends have to be covered, the line-up is:

Two caveats from the prospectus. First, nothing stops Strive issuing more stock that ranks equal to or above SATS, including more SATA, without asking SATS holders. Second, SATS is also structurally behind any liabilities inside Strive's subsidiaries. At the moment neither is a problem: Strive reports no debt at 9 October, and no stock ranking equal to SATS.

What sits underneath is Bitcoin. At 9 October Strive held about 32,773 BTC with a fair value of $2.7 billion (bought at an average of $89,353, a $2.9 billion cost), plus $310 million of cash and $50 million of STRC. Add the roughly $609 million Strive nets from this deal and that is about $3.7 billion of assets against $2.1 billion of preferred at $100 a share, roughly 1.7 times. That is my own arithmetic and it moves with Bitcoin. Bitcoin pays nothing, so the dividends come from the reserve, from selling Bitcoin or from raising more money. Strive's total preferred bill is now about $290 million a year (13% on SATA, 15% on SATS), which I work out as 7.8% of those assets. A Bitcoin price well below the $83,000 Strive paid for its latest purchase makes that ratio a lot less comfortable.

Who is it for?

The prospectus doesn't say who Strive wants to sell to, so this is my reading. SATA's rate moves, which suits people who are watching a price. SATS's doesn't, which suits people who want to know exactly what they will be paid before they buy. Strive's CEO Matt Cole told Unchained that investors showed "a massive desire for, actually, income stability", and the timing makes sense: Strive had just collected an expected $369 million from warrant exercises, so it could add a second preferred next to SATA.

The fixed income argument is that there is more money looking for a fixed payment than for a bet on the Bitcoin price, and that pensions, insurers and retirees are often limited to, or simply prefer, fixed payments. I think that is true, but I wouldn't lean on the market sizes. Estimates for the global bond market run from roughly $127 trillion to $145 trillion, while Ocorian puts global listed equities at about $157 trillion, so on headline numbers the two are similar. What differs is who is allowed to buy what. A pension fund that can't hold ASST common may still be able to hold a preferred. Whether the big institutions will actually buy a Bitcoin-backed preferred is the open question, and nothing in the prospectus answers it.

How 16.7% compares

Preferred yields use Friday 16 October closing prices and are annual dividend divided by price, so they move every day. The Treasury yields are the Federal Reserve's 15 October figures and the corporate bond yield is the US Treasury's own curve, both via FRED. For the two ETFs I took the average of the last four monthly payouts, multiplied by twelve and divided by Friday's price. An ETF's payout is lower than the yield of the bonds it holds, because of fees and because it pays out what it has earned, not what the bonds yield today, so read those two rows as a guide, not a precise benchmark.

ETF yields are my own calculation from published monthly payouts and the price shown, so they will differ slightly from the fund companies' official figures. For those, see the iShares PFF page and the iShares HYG page.

The line that stands out to me is the bottom of the table. SATS at its issue price yields about 11.6 points more than the 10-year Treasury and well over double what the high-yield bond ETF pays. That is the kind of rate usually paid by a company in real difficulty. I don't think the comparison is accidental. A buyer is being paid like a lender to a company that might not survive, because the dividend depends on Bitcoin and Strive's willingness to pay, with no assets pledged and no maturity date to force repayment. A bond holder is owed the money by law, and a preferred holder is owed it only if the board declares it.

Next to the products I follow, SATS has the highest yield in the group, but the gap is smaller than the headline suggests. SATA is 13.4% and CHAD about 14% today, and STRD is 14.1% on a non-cumulative basis. At today's prices SATS offers about 3 points more than SATA for sitting one step lower, and for being fixed rather than variable. Whether that is enough depends on how likely you think a stress scenario is, because in a stress scenario the lower step is the one that takes losses first. The thing I'll be watching most closely is the price once it trades. If it stays near $90, the market is demanding that extra yield. If it climbs towards $100, the 16.7% shrinks quickly: at $100 it is simply 15%.

My view

The structure is better than the rate. The reserve, the narrow redemption rights and the buy-back right on a takeover are all terms that favour holders, and Strive deserves credit for having no debt ahead of either preferred. Against that, SATS is the junior of two preferreds, issued by a company with a single volatile asset, and nothing prevents Strive adding stock that ranks ahead or equal later. The 18-month reserve buys time, not safety. I'd treat SATS as a bet on Strive surviving a long Bitcoin downturn with its dividends intact, and price it as one.

Where to look next: the SATS hub and the SATA hub have the live prices and dividend history, and Strive's capital structure article covers SATA and the debt-free stack in more detail.

I track STRC, SATA, BMNP, CHAD, MORE and now SATS daily and hold positions in MSTR and ASST. The SATS terms are from Strive's 424B5 prospectus supplement dated 15 October 2026 and its pricing 8-K; the Treasury and corporate bond yields are from FRED (Federal Reserve and US Treasury), and the ETF yields are my own calculation from Yahoo Finance prices and payouts. This is my own read, not financial advice.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. SATS is a newly issued, speculative security whose dividends depend on Strive's ability and decision to pay them and are not guaranteed. Yields change with prices and are not a forecast of returns. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.