Strategy’s Falling Stretch Preferred Shares Put Apyx and Saturn’s DeFi Dollar Products Under Pressure
Strategy’s Stretch preferred shares, listed under the ticker STRC, have become a pressure point for two DeFi protocols that built yield products around the security. According to Forbes, Apyx and Saturn together manage nearly $490 million, with Artemis analyst Zheng Jie Lim estimating that about $267 million was directly exposed to Stretch as of July 21. The damage has already shown up in token pricing: Apyx’s synthetic dollar apxUSD briefly fell below $0.80 in late June before recovering to around $0.90 on Kraken and Curve, while Saturn’s yield-bearing sUSDat was worth roughly $0.90 USDat. The structure of both protocols relies heavily on Stretch as reserve collateral, leaving them vulnerable to further declines in the preferred stock. Market participants cited in the report said leverage loops on Morpho and yield-splitting on Pendle can magnify the stress, though some argued the products are not yet large enough to trigger a broader crypto contagion. The report also said Strategy has started selling Bitcoin and raising equity to shore up liquidity while Michael Saylor’s company revises the way it presents its mNAV metric.
