The nascent digital credit market endured one of its most volatile sessions on Thursday as two prominent preferred equity instruments tied to Bitcoin treasury companies saw sharp intraday price swings. Strategy’s (NASDAQ:MSTR) STRC and Strive’s (NASDAQ:ASST) SATA both traded well below their typical levels near a $100 par value before staging notable recoveries by the close.
STRC, Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, dropped as low as $82.50 during the session before rebounding significantly.
Today was the most difficult day in the history of Digital Credit.$STRC traded as low as $82.50 before recovering sharply. $SATA traded from par down to the low 90s before also rebounding. It was a difficult day for many investors.
What happened today was a leverage…
— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) June 18, 2026
SATA, Strive’s own Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, fell from its par value into the low $90s—reaching an intraday low around $92.88 in some reports—before climbing back toward $97.
Both products are structured to deliver attractive yields while aiming for relative price stability close to par, backed by the issuers’ substantial Bitcoin holdings.
Matt Cole, Chairman and CEO of Strive, characterized the day as “the most difficult day in the history of Digital Credit.”
In a detailed public statement, he stressed that the moves reflected a classic leverage-driven unwind rather than any erosion in the underlying credit quality of the issuers.
Cole explained that these higher-yielding instruments had drawn investors who borrowed against their positions to boost returns, a common practice when assets appear to offer strong carry with relatively contained volatility.
When prices began to slip, margin calls forced additional selling, creating a self-reinforcing cascade.
This dynamic, Cole noted, often decouples short-term price action from fundamentals.
He drew parallels to past episodes in traditional fixed-income markets, including major hedge-fund failures involving highly leveraged positions in U.S. Treasuries—assets whose credit standing remained solid even as leveraged holders were compelled to exit.
Cole was explicit that no credit event had occurred: there were no defaults, and the issuers’ ability to meet obligations remained intact.
At Strive, dividend reserves continue to be well-supported, the company faces no balance-sheet stress, and the fundamental credit profile of its products is essentially unchanged.
He pointed to meaningful buying interest that emerged at the lows, driving the sharp recoveries in both STRC and SATA as evidence of underlying demand for the asset class.
The episode highlights a distinction Cole emphasized repeatedly: a liquidation flush fueled by overextended leveraged positions is not the same as a deterioration in collateral quality.
In fact, he suggested, such events can occur precisely because the underlying assets are viewed as stable enough to support leverage in the first place.
With digital credit still in its early stages, Cole viewed the volatility as instructive, arguing it is preferable for the market to confront and internalize these risks while the sector remains relatively small.
Investors and issuers alike, he indicated, benefit from gaining experience with leverage dynamics and liquidity realities before the category scales significantly.
Cole expressed continued conviction in the long-term promise of digital credit as an emerging category of instruments, framing Thursday’s turbulence as a temporary excess that markets ultimately work through, often leaving stronger foundations behind.
The sharp but contained nature of the moves, combined with the subsequent rebound on visible demand, underscored for many observers the difference between technical selling pressure and fundamental credit impairment in this new corner of the income markets.
