Strategy CEO Phong Le Tells Investors to Mortgage Homes for STRC Dividends—Stock Offers No Principal Guarantees

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) CEO Phong Le has urged retail investors to mortgage their homes and purchase Stretch (STRC), the company's controversial dividend-paying stock—raising serious questions about investor protection and the boundaries of executive salesmanship. Speaking on Natalie Brunell's popular Bitcoin-focused show, Le positioned STRC's variable, 11.5% annualized dividends as reliable income, even comparing them to a paycheck despite explicit disclosures that the board may suspend payouts at any time and that the stock carries no guarantees of principal repayment.

The pitch marks a striking shift from the strategy championed by company founder Michael Saylor, who on March 10, 2021, encouraged investors to leverage homes and credit lines to purchase bitcoin (BTC). Five years later, Le is now the one advising homeowners to take on debt—but this time for a speculative equity instrument with no fixed income protections. Le went further, recommending STRC to people who "might have a mortgage to pay, or they might have utility bills to pay, or a car bill," framing a high-risk, variable-yield instrument as suitable for routine household expenses. Notably, Le disclosed that he himself purchased $250,000 of STRC just the prior week.

The marketing approach faces scrutiny over whether it adequately disclosed the risks of a stock that has no principal guarantee, carries suspended-dividend risk at board discretion, and whose variable yield fluctuates with market conditions. Financial regulators have historically flagged comparable marketing tactics—positioning speculative securities as income substitutes—as potential violations of suitability standards. Strategy's transformation from a corporate bitcoin vehicle to a dividend-distributing equity issuer, with its CEO personally invested in promoting that equity, intensifies the conflict-of-interest dimension and the need for investor caution.