Strategy and other companies have bought 135,979 bitcoin with money raised by selling high-yield preferred shares to income investors, according to a research note Fidelity Digital Assets published on Oct. 20. The stakes: those buyers are promised steady payouts from companies whose plan, in Fidelity's own words, "only works if the appreciation of the underlying asset outpaces the cost of yield."
Fidelity Digital Assets is the digital asset custody and trading arm of Fidelity, so it has a business interest in demand for bitcoin.
How it works
Perpetual preferred stock is a share that pays a fixed dividend and never has to be paid back. Fidelity says the bitcoin versions pay more often than the monthly norm, "ranging from bi-monthly to daily." Issuers aim to keep the shares trading close to their face value; when the price rises above it, a company can sell more shares and use the cash to buy bitcoin. Fidelity says Strategy first launched this approach in July 2025, and other issuers have followed.
The evidence
Most of the buying came in a burst this spring. Fidelity counts over 22,000 bitcoin bought in March 2026, over 48,000 in April, including nearly 30,000 in a single week, and nearly 25,000 in May: over 95,000 in three months, funded by more than $7 billion raised. By Oct. 5, the total reached 135,979 bitcoin, which Fidelity puts at more than 0.5% of the total bitcoin supply.
That is a fraction of what spot bitcoin exchange-traded products took in during their own first year, as the chart below shows.
Source: Fidelity Digital Assets; chart: Le Coin
Fidelity says spot ETPs gathered 888,185 bitcoin in the year after their January 2024 launch. It puts the bitcoin-focused preferreds at about $12 billion in market share, citing issuer figures it accessed in June, against a global fixed income market of about $150 trillion, and says the gap shows "vast, largely untapped potential" for more bitcoin-linked products in fixed income.
In Le Coin's view, the count measures bitcoin bought with preferred-share proceeds, not the health of the promises behind it. Each of those coins is tied to dividends the issuer has promised to fund whether bitcoin rises or not.
The objection
In Le Coin's view, the strongest objection comes from Fidelity's own note: these shares "are not simply the high-yield equivalent of money market funds" and "carry an additional layer of risk," tied to both bitcoin and the companies issuing them. Fidelity calls a full risk assessment beyond its scope, and it is a firm that benefits when bitcoin demand grows.
What to watch
In Le Coin's view, the tell is whether issuance keeps coming in months when bitcoin is not rising.
Sources
- Fidelity Digital Assets, "Perpetual Preferred Stock: The Newest Demand Catalyst in Bitcoin," Zack Wainwright, Oct. 20, 2026. https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/perpetual-preferred-stock-newest-demand-catalyst-bitcoin (accessed 5:06 p.m. ET, Oct. 20, 2026)
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.