When Bitcoin Meets Banking: A Tale of Preferred Stocks and Perpetual Gains

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In an era where even the most steadfast institutions find themselves seduced by the siren song of cryptocurrency, Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered U.S. crypto bank, has taken a rather peculiar step: it has added perpetual preferred stock in a bitcoin treasury firm to its balance sheet. One might say this is not merely a financial maneuver, but a declaration of love, albeit a very calculated one.

What could possibly be more thrilling than a crypto firm investing in a bitcoin treasury strategy? Perhaps the revelation that this investment is meant to signal “institutional confidence,” as if institutions had ever been known for their confidence in anything other than their own wisdom.

The preferred shares, which pay an 11.25% annual dividend adjusted monthly to stay near a $100 par value, are a testament to the modern investor’s penchant for both stability and absurdity. After all, who needs a guaranteed return when you can have a guaranteed confusion?

Anchorage’s CEO, Nathan McCauley, declared it “conviction compounding,” a term that sounds suspiciously like a new form of alchemy. One might wonder if this is the same conviction that leads banks to lend money to those who have already borrowed too much, or if it is merely a clever way to rebrand risk as virtue.

Michael Saylor, ever the visionary, responded with the timeless wisdom that “conviction is contagious,” a sentiment that spreads faster than a well-timed scandal. One can only imagine the flurry of activity as other firms rush to join this lucrative trend, much like moths to a flame-or perhaps, more accurately, like tourists to a souvenir stand.

Strategy, the world’s largest publicly listed bitcoin holder, boasts a coin stash so vast it could fund a small nation’s coffee addiction. Yet, even as prices wobble, the institutional faithful cling to their Bitcoin like a moth to a flame, or a tourist to a souvenir. It is a love affair as enduring as it is perplexing.

And let us not forget the perpetual preferred stock, a financial instrument so enduring it outlives the fads of the 19th century. With its monthly dividends and adjustable rates, it is a marvel of modern finance, designed to keep investors perpetually engaged, much like a well-timed scandal.

San Francisco-based Anchorage Digital, a firm so forward-thinking it’s already building bridges between the old world of banking and the new world of crypto, though perhaps not the kind of bridges one would cross on a Sunday stroll. After all, in the world of Bitcoin, even the most mundane transactions are imbued with the drama of a Shakespearean tragedy.

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2026-02-25 09:40