BlackRock’s preferred stock ETF buys $39M in Strive’s SATS shares

BlackRock’s iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF, which trades under the ticker PFF, has disclosed its first purchase of Strive’s SATS preferred stock. The fund now holds 412,353 shares, a position valued at an estimated $39.2 million based on holdings as of November 4, 2026.

Strive is a Bitcoin treasury company. So one of the world’s largest asset managers now has a meaningful chunk of a security built to help a company buy more Bitcoin.

What PFF actually bought

The security in question is Strive Inc.’s 15.00% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock. It trades on Nasdaq under the ticker SATS.

The exact value of PFF’s stake, per its holdings data, comes to $39,177,658.53.

The headline feature of SATS is its yield. The shares carry a fixed 15% annual dividend on a stated amount of $100.

Think of preferred stock as the middle child of corporate finance. It sits between bonds and common shares, typically paying a set dividend rather than offering the full upside of common equity. “Perpetual” means there is no maturity date, so holders collect the dividend for as long as the shares stay outstanding.

A fresh IPO with a Bitcoin shopping list

PFF’s entry comes shortly after SATS hit the market. Strive raised approximately $630 million in its IPO for the preferred stock, which closed on October 20, 2026.

The offering was priced at $90 per share, with 7 million shares sold. The stated aim of the raise was to support Bitcoin acquisitions.

Strive did not waste much time putting capital to work. Between October 17 and October 23, 2026, the company purchased 6,182 BTC for $511.4 million.

Its Bitcoin treasury now exceeds 43,000 BTC. Much of that growth was funded through a series of earlier preferred stock offerings, making preferred equity the engine of Strive’s accumulation strategy.

Strive describes itself as a Nasdaq-listed structured finance company. In practice, that means it issues securities to investors and uses the proceeds to build a Bitcoin reserve on its balance sheet.

Not BlackRock’s first Strive rodeo

This is PFF’s first disclosed SATS position, but the fund already knew its way around Strive’s capital structure. It had been holding the company’s SATA preferred shares, which sit higher up the pecking order than SATS.

By mid-September 2026, PFF had increased its SATA position by 133% to 236,159 shares.

Seniority matters here. In a capital structure, more senior securities generally get paid ahead of junior ones if things go sideways. SATA holders stand in front of SATS holders in that line, which helps explain why the junior SATS shares carry a richer dividend.

Rules, not conviction

PFF follows a rule-based investment approach. It adds securities that meet specific criteria, such as market capitalization and liquidity thresholds, rather than picking positions based on a portfolio manager’s view of an asset.

So SATS likely landed in the fund because it grew large and liquid enough to qualify, not because someone at BlackRock woke up bullish.

What this means

For Strive, landing in PFF is a structural win. Rule-based funds tend to hold securities as long as they meet the criteria, which can provide a steady source of demand and support trading liquidity for SATS.

For income investors, anyone holding PFF for its yield now has indirect exposure to a company whose balance sheet is anchored by more than 43,000 BTC.

The risk side deserves equal billing. A 15% dividend has to be paid from somewhere, and Strive’s core asset swings in price far more than a typical preferred issuer’s business. If Bitcoin falls hard, the junior SATS shares sit behind SATA in the queue, and the gap between “fixed income” and “fixed” could become uncomfortably apparent.