Peter Schiff is back on X, taking aim at MicroStrategy's preferred stock structure. The longtime gold proponent argued Thursday that the company's STRC preferred shares, which carry an 11.5% annual dividend, depend on Bitcoin appreciating roughly 30% per year just to keep payments flowing. He posted that MSTR has deployed roughly $64 billion into Bitcoin since adopting its treasury strategy five years ago — and that as of May 23, 2026, the total return on that position is negative.
The dividend math
Strategy set the STRC dividend rate at 11.50% for March 2026, the seventh consecutive monthly increase since the preferred shares launched in July 2025. The rate is adjusted monthly to keep shares trading near their $100 par value. Schiff contends that covering an 11.5% annual payout requires Bitcoin to compound at a rate far above historical averages. He previously labeled the whole enterprise a Ponzi scheme.
Why Bitcoin's return matters
Ongoing STRC issuance raises the required return threshold each month as more shares enter the float, Schiff noted. A commenter pushed back, arguing that MSTR's bitcoin holdings — 818,869 BTC at an average cost of roughly $75,540 per coin — far exceed its dividend obligations and that a 2.5% compound annual growth rate would be sufficient to cover payments. Schiff rejected that figure, pointing out that bitcoin has not even reached that modest threshold since MSTR began accumulating. Bitcoin was trading near $76,800 on May 23, within a hair of the average cost basis.
The Saylor challenge
Michael Saylor has publicly challenged Schiff to defend his position, citing MSTR's long-run price performance relative to traditional assets. Another participant in the thread argued the real problem is retail investors failing to grasp the volatility of a leveraged bitcoin proxy. Schiff didn't back down. Whether the structure can sustain itself if Bitcoin stays range-bound remains the open question — and the next monthly dividend reset in June will offer another data point.
