Benchmark Rejects TerraUSD Comparison as Strategy’s STRC Trades 11% Below $100

Strategy’s floating-rate preferred stock STRC has drawn comparisons to the collapse of TerraUSD, or UST, after a recent slide. Benchmark Research analyst Mark Palmer says the two assets are fundamentally different.

CoinDesk reported on June 23 that Palmer used a research note to rebut claims in the market that STRC resembles UST, writing that STRC is not a stablecoin.

STRC is a preferred stock designed to trade around $100 a share. It recently fell to an intraday low of $82.53 and finished at $88.65, leaving it at an roughly 11% discount to that benchmark price. Some market participants have described the move as a depeg and likened it to UST’s collapse.

Its dividend yield of about 11.5% has also prompted comparisons to the high-return model once offered by Anchor Protocol in the Terra ecosystem.

Palmer wrote that STRC is not a stablecoin that promises to hold a $1 value, but a dividend-paying preferred stock. It was designed to trade near $100, though the company never guaranteed that price. Because the security was not pegged to a fixed value in the first place, describing the decline as depegging is inaccurate.

He contrasted that with UST, which relied on an algorithmic mechanism tied to Luna. STRC has no such structure. Instead, it is indirectly backed by the 847,363 Bitcoin held by Strategy, a stake worth about $54.5 billion.

Palmer added that the decline in STRC is affecting Strategy’s Bitcoin acquisition strategy. The company had been issuing new shares and using the proceeds to buy Bitcoin when STRC traded above $100, but that program is currently suspended as the stock remains at a discount. In his view, that reflects weaker funding efficiency rather than any damage to the business model itself.