I just saw an interesting market trend: the trading volume of Strategy's STRC perpetual preferred stock hit a record of $1.1 billion last April, a 46% increase from previous highs. This number is quite astonishing, especially considering it’s happening at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto assets.

According to VanEck research director Matthew Sigel, this surge in trading volume directly corresponds to the $600 million to $700 million Strategy raised through STRC instruments to buy Bitcoin. In other words, behind the trading volume is real institutional capital flowing into BTC. Strategy now holds over 250k Bitcoin, making it one of the largest corporate holders worldwide.

Interestingly, this spike in trading volume reflects a shift in institutional investors’ attitude toward Bitcoin. Previously, Bitcoin was mainly a retail or professional trader’s asset; now, more and more companies are treating it as a strategic asset. The structure of STRC, a perpetual preferred stock, is clever, allowing traditional financial investors to gain Bitcoin exposure through familiar stock markets, avoiding the complexities of direct coin holdings.

From a market infrastructure perspective, the ability to seamlessly handle this scale of trading volume indicates that custody, trading, and settlement systems are now quite mature. No delays, no settlement issues—something unimaginable a few years ago. Regulatory developments are also evolving; the SEC’s attitude toward digital asset securities is becoming clearer, providing the necessary certainty for such innovative products.

Analysts predict that trading volumes of hybrid tools like STRC will continue to grow. As more companies start allocating digital assets, these perpetual preferred stocks could evolve into a whole new asset class. In other words, last year’s $1.1 billion trading volume might just be the beginning; in the future, such levels of trading could become the norm. This is not just a trading record but a signal of the deep integration between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem.