The SEC proposes a crypto custody path. Strategy posts a $20.91B Q3 gain. Daily dividends go to a shareholder vote.
The SEC proposes a custody path letting registered advisers and funds self-custody crypto when no qualified custodian will hold the asset, Strategy posts a $20.91 billion Q3 fair-value gain while buying 334 BTC and retiring another $176.3 million of STRC, daily preferred dividends head to an October 28 shareholder vote, Strive adds 2,000 BTC funded mostly by SATA, and Metaplanet sells 10,000 BTC and buys back 11,000 to prove it can.
Welcome to the eleventh edition of The Consolidation. The fortnight opened with the SEC proposing a custody path for registered advisers and regulated funds, and the treasury action again ran through the preferred stack. Strategy posted a $20.91 billion Q3 fair-value gain, bought 334 BTC, retired another $176.3 million of STRC, and asked shareholders to put preferred dividends on a daily clock. Strive added 2,000 BTC funded mostly with SATA, and Metaplanet sold 10,000 BTC and bought back 11,000 to prove it can. As always, we welcome your feedback as we refine future editions.
Five headlines shaping the Bitcoin landscape over the past two weeks.
SEC proposes a custody path for advisers and funds
Why it matters: On October 1 the Commission proposed rules letting registered advisers and regulated funds self-custody crypto only when no qualified custodian will hold the asset, and treating state trust companies as permitted crypto custodians. The comment period runs 60 days after Federal Register publication. Sentiment: fund counsel on X said custody, not the investment case, has been the binding constraint. The SEC’s own post drew several thousand likes. A smaller set of replies called the conditions a legacy box rather than open self-custody.
Strategy posts a $20.91 billion Q3 gain, buys 334 BTC, and retires another $176.3 million of STRC
Why it matters: The October 5 8-K puts holdings at 848,000 BTC as of October 4, acquired for $63.97 billion at $75,440.7. The new coins were 334 BTC at $85,838.8 between October 1 and October 4, funded with $15.7 million of MSTR ATM proceeds and $13.0 million of USD Cash. Over September 28 to October 4 the company repurchased 1,773,802 STRC shares for $176.3 million, $154.1 million from USD Cash and $22.2 million from interest on cash. USD Reserve was $4.88 billion and USD Cash $833.4 million, about $5.7 billion combined, down from $6.09 billion on September 20. The quarterly gain is a fair-value mark. Deferred tax expense is $1.88 billion. Saylor’s post rounded the gain to $21 billion and put USD Duration at 3.6 years. Sentiment: the reply on X treated 848,000 as the headline and the buyback mix as the tell. Common-holder accounts are still splitting coin count from sats per share. Preferred accounts are still splitting distance to par from the size of the check.
Strategy asks shareholders to put preferred dividends on a daily clock
Why it matters: The September 25 proposal, up for a vote on October 28, would accrue dividends every calendar day on STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD, with cash paid the next business day. Stated economics do not change. If it passes, STRC moves first, with calendar-day record dates from November 1 and business-day payments from November 2. The other three follow in January. STRC is still short of its $100 stated amount, last marked near $99.15 to $99.35 around the turn of the month, at a 12% rate held for October. A daily accrual shortens the reinvestment gap a semi-monthly check leaves on the table. Sentiment: desks that follow the preferred, including Hermes Lux, had already argued that a daily pay date would do more for the par bid than another week of buybacks. The reply on X was constructive, not euphoric. The open question is whether the change pulls STRC through $100, which is the level that reopens clean ATM issuance.
Strive adds 2,000 BTC and still funds most of the bid with SATA
Why it matters: Strive bought 2,000 BTC between September 28 and October 2 at $84,422, about $169 million, taking the treasury to 29,462 BTC. Matt Cole said SATA supplied 61.5% of the capital. Strive also holds 505,000 STRC shares, about $50.2 million, the same preferred Strategy is retiring. The prior add, 1,107 BTC at $85,396 in the week to September 25, had put the stack at 27,462. Fifth place is no longer a rounding error against MARA at 35,577 BTC. Metaplanet, after today’s round trip, is at 44,000. Sentiment: the same-morning comparison did the work on X. Strategy spent more than six times as much on STRC as on bitcoin. Strive did the opposite. Saylor had already said he wants Strive to succeed. Preferred-ETF money is choosing between the two coupons: on October 1 Bitcoin Treasuries flagged PFF as having sold 353,860 STRC and bought 195,804 SATA. Treat that as a holdings print, not a BlackRock strategy note.
Metaplanet sells 10,000 BTC and buys back 11,000 to prove it can
Why it matters: During the third quarter Metaplanet sold 10,000 BTC for about 124.7 billion yen ($790 million) and bought 11,000 for about 149.9 billion yen ($950 million). Net add is 1,000 BTC. Holdings are 44,000 as of September 30. Simon Gerovich said rating agencies ask one question of a bitcoin company, whether the coins can be turned into cash and whether they will be, and that the round trip was the answer. The sale covered more than the principal of bonds and borrowings. The debts were left outstanding. The sale produced a U.S. capital loss and an estimated $97 million deferred tax asset. The company is pursuing a credit rating and plans to put 10% to 15% of assets into income-generating securities, funded by preferreds, BitBonds, and a bitcoin-collateralized facility. Sentiment: this replaces the governance letter as the Metaplanet story. The September 29 director letter on Series 10 is still the dilution rebuttal, and VanEck’s September 18 screen still had the firm alone in the “Bad” band on executive equity. Shareholders who care about mNAV will read the 8.8% fully diluted improvement from the September 11 warrant cut. Shareholders who care about credit will read today’s sale.
Our view on the preferred stack.
A lot of cash spent defending a $100 stated amount, and a daily-dividend vote meant to reduce the volatility behind it.
Our view on macro and the Bitcoin market.
Bitcoin finished the quarter near $83,700, up about 40% over three months, still roughly a third below the October 2025 high.
Bitcoin finished the quarter near $83,700, up about 40% over three months and about 6.3% in September, still roughly a third below the October 2025 high near $126,000.1 The path was not smooth. The Senate block on the CLARITY Act and the Federal Reserve’s move to a 3.75% to 4.00% funds rate, the first hike in three years, knocked Bitcoin toward $75,000 in mid-September. Spot ETFs shed about $746 million across September 15 and 16.
The flow data explains the round trip better than the headlines. September 21 brought a $999 million ETF inflow, the largest day of 2026, and September as a whole was the second-best month since October 2025 at about $2.65 billion.1 September 30 reversed a nine-session streak, with $148.69 million out and no fund recording an inflow. The first two sessions of October took in $134.4 million.2 CryptoQuant’s 30-day apparent spot demand was down about 170,000 BTC into the turn of the month, and futures demand growth had slowed from 164,000 BTC to 16,000 BTC. Glassnode mapped a sell wall between $85,000 and $85,500 on Binance that had tripled since September 24. Against that, the week of the breakout saw roughly 26,000 BTC leave exchanges.
Digital Credit Monthly: Issue 02
UTXO Management · Research
Dan Hillery’s second monthly on the digital credit complex: Strategy’s proposal to move every dollar-denominated preferred to daily dividends, STRC at $99.35 after another month of buybacks and the par window into the November 1 switch, ex-dividend behavior across the fixed-rate preferreds, and Strategy versus Strive on a common basis.
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Strategy holds 848,000 BTC, about 4% of the 21 million cap, at a blended cost of $75,440.7. The October 5 filing put a $20.91 billion fair-value gain on that stack for the third quarter, against $1.88 billion of deferred tax.1 The stack is no longer funded by a single common-equity ATM. It is funded by a stack of preferreds, a USD reserve built to cover the dividend and interest bill, and a residual MSTR ATM. Between September 28 and October 4 the company bought 334 BTC for $28.7 million and repurchased $176.3 million of STRC.2 Six times as much cash went to the preferred as to BTC. The week before was the other mix: 1,665 BTC at $85,681 and a $151.7 million STRC retirement, funded mainly by $246.2 million of MSTR. Dollar assets are $5.7 billion, down from $6.09 billion on September 20, after preferred dividends, interest, and the buyback.
That is a lot of cash spent defending a $100 stated amount. STRC is still short of par, last marked near $99.15 to $99.35, with the dividend rate at 12% for October.3 Below par, new STRC issuance is dilutive to the preferred holder and a weak funding tool for the common. Above par, the ATM works and the bitcoin bid can run without leaning so hard on MSTR. At 12%, this week’s retirement of 1,773,802 shares cuts the regular dividend bill by about $21 million a year.
The September 25 proposal is a structural attempt at reducing volatility. Dividends on STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD would accrue every calendar day, including weekends and holidays, and pay the next business day.3 Strategy says the economics do not change. What changes is reinvestment lag. Shareholders vote on October 28. If it passes, STRC switches on November 1st.