Bitcoin’s $10 Billion Credit Market Keeps Expanding Despite Its First Major Selloff

TL;DR:

• The combined trading volume for STRC and SATA preferred shares exceeded $10 billion during the June turmoil.
• US firms Strategy and Strive led corporate Bitcoin acquisitions in June, adding a net of 3,625 BTC and 3,364 BTC respectively.
• Metaplanet, the third-largest public Bitcoin holding company with 43,000 BTC, announced on July 10, 2026, a joint study to issue tokenized credit instruments in Japan.

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The $10 billion Bitcoin credit market continues to attract new institutional participants after suffering a sharp wave of liquidations in June, which triggered margin calls and pushed the price of its main preferred shares well below their nominal value.

The report from BitcoinTreasuries.net reveals that this correction stands as the sector’s first significant stress test. The data suggests that the market emerged operational despite the damages suffered, keeping dividend payments uninterrupted and recording record volumes in the secondary market.

The impact of leverage on preferred instruments

The accumulation of financial leverage temporarily transformed products designed for stable income generation into a source of volatility. Firms like Strategy and Strive resorted to perpetual preferred shares to raise long-term capital without diluting their common stock or relying exclusively on traditional bank debt. The sector’s benchmark instruments, Strategy’s STRC and Strive’s SATA, traded for months near their stated nominal value of $100.

This prolonged stability incentivized multiple investors to borrow money to amplify their positions and maximize dividend yields. However, the strategy depended on the assets maintaining their price, a premise that began to fail when Bitcoin pulled back below $60,000 in mid-June.

Starting June 18, STRC and SATA prices broke sharply downward. The price drop triggered forced margin calls, compelling indebted investors to liquidate their positions in a weakened market. According to trading records from the period, STRC dropped to an all-time low of $75, representing a 25% discount relative to its nominal value, while SATA fell to around $88.

As an institutional response to the crisis, Strategy’s management raised STRC’s annualized dividend to 12% and implemented a capital framework that included a $2.55 billion cash reserve, a fund sufficient to cover approximately 17 months of preferred dividends and interest commitments.

Price recovery and international expansion of the model

Despite the initial panic selling, the financial market experienced a faster-than-expected stabilization. At the close of the corresponding reporting session, STRC shares recovered ground up to $87, while SATA rebounded firmly toward $97.

The traded volume reflected intense activity in the secondary market, accumulating over $10 billion during the month of June, split into $8.7 billion from STRC and nearly $1.5 billion contributed by SATA.

Although this liquidity did not generate direct fresh capital for the issuers through open-market (at-the-market) sales, both firms maintained their cryptocurrency reserve accumulation programs using other corporate resources. Strategy and Strive disbursed nearly $200 million each during the month, a signal that industry proponents interpret as continued backing for the digital treasury strategy.

The resilience demonstrated by these financial instruments has driven the replication of the credit model outside United States borders. On July 10, 2026, Metaplanet, a firm listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange holding a balance sheet of 43,000 BTC, announced the launch of a joint feasibility study to structure tokenized credit instruments in Japan.

The initiative will be developed in collaboration with Siiibo Securities (an entity recently acquired by Metaplanet for $13 million), the yen stablecoin issuer JPYC, and the regulated security token platform Progmat.

The consortium plans to evaluate the design of digital debt products that use Bitcoin as a backing asset or credit enhancement mechanism, seeking to mitigate the high operational costs of administration and distribution that limit financing for mid-sized Japanese companies.

A complementary survey by BitcoinTreasuries.net indicates that 78% of sector participants project that the Bitcoin credit market will continue to expand steadily toward the end of 2027. Forecasts from an optimistic segment even suggest that the circulating supply of this structured debt class could surpass the $50 billion mark globally in the medium term.