Hello and welcome to Bitcoin Balance Sheet, the twice weekly email from Bitcoin Treasuries, where we track the latest in corporate Bitcoin buying.

Each Monday, you'll receive a quick blast on the top buyers over the last week. We'll follow that up every Friday with digest and analysis. Enjoy!

Front Run: The Bitcoin Conference Pre-Party

The real Bitcoin treasury conversations happen before the conference even starts.

Front Run gathers the operators, allocators, and CFOs actively deploying capital into Bitcoin balance sheets — off-stage and ahead of the noise.

It’s where a treasury CEO testing capital markets strategies compares frameworks with a miner stacking its own reserves. Where the allocator writing eight-figure SATA checks meets the CFO engineering preferred at compressed mNAV.

Hosted by Bitcoin Treasuries Media and BitcoinTreasuries.net, this is where the people shaping Bitcoin balance sheets connect before the lights come on.

When: Sunday, April 26 | 2:00 PM – 11:00 PM PDT
Where: Stadium Swim, Las Vegas

Just last week, Strategy’s perpetual preferred securities generated around $829 million in secondary market trading volume. This figure dwarfs most corporate preferred equity markets and signals that there is genuine institutional participation in Bitcoin-backed fixed income instruments. 

The volume represents existing shares trading between investors across STRC, STRK, STRF, and STRD, demonstrating that treasury preferred equity is evolving from experimental funding to an asset class that has — at times — deep liquidity.  

Massive secondary trading paired with insatiable pricing and a somewhat modest primary issuance does reveal a paradox, however. STRC, for instance, recently traded below $100 before recovering. And Strategy — despite $829 million in weekly secondary volume — issued just $78 million in new STRC during the same period, relying heavily on the $90 million that it raised in dilutive common stock instead.

On average, investment-grade corporate preferreds typically trade in the low-millions of dollars per day, with liquidity assessed using average daily trading volume, bid-ask spreads, and market depth. 

Those are the same metrics institutional desks use across fixed-income-like equities. 

Strategy’s $829 million weekly in secondary volume, spread across four series, translates to approximately $200 million per series. This positions Strategy’s digital credit among the most actively traded preferred securities in US markets, despite the current market stress.

In fact, the $40 million per day per series is more like equity-style turnover than your typical preferred-style behaviour. 

For a company that launched STRC in 2024, that’s no small feat. 

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Surging Volume

The $829 million becomes even more intriguing when we look at timing.

It occurred during Bitcoin’s cataclysmic correction to $60,000 from $88,000, which theoretically constitutes the worst possible environment for securities that are backed by volatile collateral. 

But instead of fleeing, secondary value surged. There are three reasons why. 

First, volatility creates rebalancing pressure. Institutional portfolios that hold Strategy’s preferreds saw Bitcoin’s crash alter their asset mix, triggering mechanical selling to restore their target allocations. A pension fund that maintains a 60/40 stocks to bonds allocation doesn’t evaluate whether STRC remains fundamentally sound. When positions drift, it simply rebalances. 

Second, the search for more yield intensified. As Bitcoin fell and Strategy’s common stock compressed toward parity, investors that seek yield while avoiding the accompanying volatility rotated into a preferred offering that delivers 10% fixed returns. 

Simply put, STRC at $100 became more attractive relative to MSTR at depressed valuations. 

Third, market making escalates during volatile times. The $829 million includes substantial round-trip trading by market makers capturing bid-ask spreads. Higher volatility expands spreads, thus creating an opportunity for market-making to be more profitable by increasing gross volume even if net directional flow remains modest.

The Primary-Secondary Disconnect

With Strategy having raised $169 million total last week, the volume data reveals a silent disconnect between new issuance and secondary trading volume. The latter generated $829 million while the former raised $78 million, meaning secondary preferred trading exceeded primary issuance by nearly fivefold.  

This gap suggests a number of dynamics are at play. 

Strategy clearly views current pricing as suboptimal for large-scale issuance. While STRC holds up near its par level, management issued just 785,354 shares despite having billions of dollars in remaining capacity. 

The company instead leaned on common stock while trading at a 0.98x mNAV, accepting a small 1% dilution rather than committing to perpetual 10% dividend obligations. 

Meanwhile, the modest STRC issuance also indicated that $200 million in weekly secondary volume doesn’t automatically support primary offerings of upwards of $500 million. Indeed, markets can absorb existing share trading without the appetite for massive new supply. 

A $78 million issuance barely registers against $200 million weekly volume. An offering of half a billion dollars would flood the market and likely push pricing below par value. 

Alternatively, Strategy may simply be timing the market. Issuing preferred while Bitcoin crashes to the mid $60,000 range creates negative optics even if the credit remains sound. Waiting for Bitcoin to stabilize or rally improves marketing dynamics — the company can pitch STRC against strengthening rather than weakening collateral.

What’s noteworthy about the massive nine-figure secondary volume is that it shows that Bitcoin-backed credit can achieve genuine market depth at mega-cap scale. Even more impressive is that it is doing so at a moment of extreme market stress for its underlying asset.

Special thanks to our partners:

• AnchorWatch. AnchorWatch makes Bitcoin ownership safer and easier by combining advanced custody expertise with industry-grade insurance. As a Lloyd’s of London Coverholder, it writes specialized policies that address digital-asset risks, giving clients trusted coverage and peace of mind. Learn more: AnchorWatch

• Arch Lending. Get instant, secure loans backed by your Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana—no need to sell your assets. Arch Lending offers fast approvals and trusted custody for both individuals and institutions. Learn more: Arch Lending

• Cadena Bitcoin. A p2p bitcoin lending marketplace with a unique emphasis on working with treasury firms and businesses, as well as the savvy bitcoin-native investors who visit our website. Learn more: Cadena Bitcoin

• Coinkite. Coinkite is a leader in security and hardware manufacturing and the maker of some of the most iconic Bitcoin products, such as OPENDIME, COLDCARD, BLOCKCLOCK, SATSCARD, TAPSIGNER and SATSCHIP. Learn more: Coinkite

• Cryptio. Cryptio is an enterprise-grade accounting software platform built specifically for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. It enables businesses to transform blockchain transaction data from multiple exchanges and custodians into auditable financial records, supporting compliance with GAAP and IFRS standards. Learn more: Cryptio

• The Hemisphere Foundation. Hemisphere develops open-source solutions designed to help treasury teams securely manage, deploy, and optimize their BTC holdings, with benefits of self-custody and Bitcoin native deployment. Learn more: The Hemisphere Foundation

• Orange Wheel Advisors. Orange Wheel Advisors is a strategic consulting firm that helps companies navigate Bitcoin’s impact on corporate finance and competitive strategy. With expertise spanning treasury management, payments, capital structure, mining, and investor communications, they provide executive education, tailored strategies, and execution support to guide businesses through the global monetary transition. Learn more: Orange Wheel Advisors

• o21 Solutions. o21 develops and implements Bitcoin-powered corporate strategy, transforming value chains with strategic expertise and tailored advisory services, with a focus on both Treasury and Operations - balance sheet accumulation, mining, and payments. Reduce cycle time through the corporate Bitcoin adoption journey through our pre-packaged or tailored engagements. Learn more: o21 Solutions

• Psalion. Psalion is a Bitcoin and digital-asset yield manager that offers institutional‑style investment strategies to professional investors, family offices, corporates, and private clients via separately managed accounts and yield funds. Learn more: Psalion

• Secure Digital Markets (SDM) provides unparalleled liquidity, execution speed, and bespoke customer service, making it the top choice for institutional investors seeking reliable digital asset trading solutions. With deep expertise in capital markets and strict regulatory standards, SDM stands out as the premier platform for all digital asset treasury teams looking to optimize their trading and treasury operations. Learn more: Secure Digital Markets (SDM)

• Stacking Sats Inc. Official IT partner at BitcoinTreasuries, Stacking Sats Inc via its subsidiary, Framework IT, is a managed IT services firm with a 17-year track record of providing best-in-class IT support, strategy, and cybersecurity, boasting high recurring revenue and long-term client contracts. It’s also one of the top 20 holders of Bitcoin among global private companies. Learn more: Stacking Sats Inc

• XCE. An executive recruitment group that combines a profitable recruitment business with a Bitcoin treasury strategy. The company turns over a decade of executive recruitment experience and four years of Bitcoin accumulation into a public Bitcoin‑powered growth engine, using a proven operating business to drive Bitcoin treasury accumulation. Learn more: XCE

• Zaprite. Zaprite is a non-custodial payment platform that allows individuals and businesses to seamlessly accept both bitcoin (on-chain and lightning) and fiat payments in a unified, customizable checkout experience. Users can easily issue invoices, generate payment links, and connect multiple wallets or custodial accounts, all while handling their own funds directly. Learn more: Zaprite

Our events calendar:

• Front Run: The Bitcoin Conference Pre-Party. ​Before the main stage lights up, the people actually shaping Bitcoin treasury strategy gather here. This is where operators, allocators, CFOs, founders, and board-level decision-makers connect off-agenda, drinks in hand, signals uncensored. Hosted by Bitcoin Treasuries Media, BitcoinTreasuries.net, and other co-hosts. Sunday, April 26

  2:00 PM, Stadium Swim, Las Vegas.

Over To You: What Do You Track?

We want to make this the go-to resource for corporate Bitcoin strategy — and that means learning from our readers.

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