A complete guide to JSTR — Joystar’s 15% Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock. How it works, where the 15% dividend actually comes from, how it affects Joystar shareholders, and everything else you need to know.
Introduction
The pre-IPO market is white-hot due to companies staying private longer to mature, pushing massive growth phases into the private domain. Investors are fiercely chasing shares of high-profile unicorns like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic, leading to massive demand on secondary markets and specialized exchange-traded funds.
Direct Secondary Marketplaces like Forge Global or EquityZen allow qualified, accredited investors to buy and sell private company stock directly.
Joystar Funds are financial vehicles that allow investors to gain indirect exposure to early and late-stage private companies with significantly lower investment minimums than direct share purchases.
“JSTR works like this: investors buy preferred shares → Joystar takes that cash, acquires pre-IPO shares in the secondary market, and pays 15% back in monthly cash.”
JSTR — officially Joystar’s 15% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock — is one of the most exciting new financial instruments in the markets. This guide explains exactly how JSTR works, where the 15% annual dividend actually comes from, and what the real risks are for both JSTR holders and Joystar common shareholders. No jargon required — start with the glossary below if any terms are unfamiliar.
JSTR — officially Joystar’s 15% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock — is one of the most exciting new financial instruments in the markets. This guide explains exactly how JSTR works, where the 15% annual dividend actually comes from, and what the real risks are for both JSTR holders and Joystar common shareholders. No jargon required — start with the glossary below if any terms are unfamiliar.
Glossary
Joystar has built a complex financial structure to acquire Pre-IPO shares in the secondary market. Before diving into the diagrams, here are the 12 terms you’ll see everywhere — explained without jargon.
Rather than holding cash or bonds in reserve, the company holds a growing portfolio of pre-IPO shares as its primary assets — the same way a traditional company might hold US dollars or government bonds. They keep acquiring more shares in companies, funded by issuing new securities.
A type of investment that sits between a bond and a regular company share. Preferred stockholders get paid dividends before common shareholders, and have priority in a bankruptcy. The trade-off: limited upside — if the company does extremely well, preferred holders don’t share in that windfall like common shareholders do.
Joystar’s 15% Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock pays monthly cash dividends at a rate currently set to 15% per year.
The main Joystar share that most people know. Owning Joystar is essentially a bet on the pre-IPO market — if the secondary market goes up a lot, Joystar shares go up. If the secondary market falls, Joystar falls. There’s no dividend. Common shareholders are last in line to be paid if the company ever winds down.
If Joystar ever misses a dividend payment on JSTR, the unpaid amount doesn’t disappear — it accumulates and must be paid in full before any other dividends can be paid. This is a protection for JSTR investors. Compare to “non-cumulative” dividends, where a missed payment is simply gone forever.
Distributions on Joystar Inc.’s preferred stock are not immediately taxable as ordinary dividend income. Instead, the IRS generally classifies them as a Return of Capital (ROC).
Because they are classified as ROC rather than standard interest or qualified dividends, you do not owe income tax when the distribution is made to you.
A ranking of who gets paid first if Joystar ever had to shut down and sell all its assets. At the top: bondholders (safest). Then preferred stockholders (JSTR). At the bottom: common Joystar shareholders. The higher up the stack you are, the safer — but also the less potential upside you get.
When a company creates new shares, existing shareholders own a smaller percentage of the company — their slice of the pie gets smaller. This is called dilution. Issuing JSTR preferred stock does NOT dilute Joystar common shareholders because it creates preferred shares, not common shares. By contrast, when Joystar sells new Joystar shares directly, that does dilute common holders.
In Plain English
Strip away the financial terminology and the mechanism is elegantly simple.
Like a bond that pays you every single month. The rate mechanism is the genius part — 100% of distributions are treated as Return of Capital, not ordinary income. You defer taxes until you sell, and pay at the lower capital gains rate.
The 15% stated yield is already exceptional. But because dividends are Return of Capital — tax-deferred rather than taxed as income — the tax-equivalent yield jumps to approximately 20% for a 24% bracket investor. Paid every single month.
JSTR holders sit above common shareholders in the capital stack. Missed dividends accumulate and must be paid in full before anything goes to common shareholders — giving JSTR holders two layers of structural protection.
Get Started
Speak with a Joystar advisor about whether JSTR is the right fit for your portfolio. Accredited investors only.
*Tax-equivalent yield estimate is for illustrative purposes only and assumes a 24% federal income tax bracket. Individual tax situations vary. The “Return of Capital” treatment of JSTR dividends is based on 2026 reporting; this classification may change in future tax years. Past dividend payments do not guarantee future dividends. JSTR is a preferred stock of Joystar; an investment in JSTR involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Investing in preferred stock and pre-IPO securities involves significant risks and is suitable only for accredited investors who can bear the loss of their entire investment. Please review all offering documents carefully before investing.