Strive (ASST.US) raises 630 million bitcoins and needs to buy 700 coins a week to rise to second place

According to Woofun AI, in a market environment where Bitcoin prices continue to be pressured, the expansion narrative of crypto treasury companies is experiencing a sharp split. When industry giant Strategy (MSTR.US) significantly slowed the pace of purchases and Metaplanet turned new capital to debt repayment, Strive (ASST.US) bucked the trend and showed strong aggressiveness. It spent a lot of money to buy 7,356 bitcoins in just two weeks, quickly becoming the focus of market attention.

Strive's rise was no accident; behind it was a unique set of capital operation logic. The Dallas-based company was co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, and the current chairman and CEO is Matt Cole. Strive officially landed on NASDAQ through a merger with Asset Entities in September 2025, then quickly acquired Semler Scientific and claimed to be the first publicly listed asset-managed Bitcoin treasury company. Unlike traditional treasury companies, Strive uses growth in the “number of bitcoins per share” as a benchmark for core capital allocation, and has abandoned traditional debt financing models and instead relied on perpetual preferred stocks to expand. Its capital structure includes both SATA, a floating interest rate preferred stock that pays dividends on a business day, and recently added SATS with a fixed interest rate. This mixed financing method provides ammunition for aggressive purchases.

With the completion of the latest round of increasing holdings, Strive's total Bitcoin holdings climbed to 36,818, successfully surpassing MARA Holdings (MARA.US) and ranking fourth in the list of listed companies' holdings. Currently, it is only 7,182 units away from the second-ranked Metaplanet (holding 44,000 units).

This jump was due to its efficient financing capacity: on October 15, Strive issued 7 million shares of 15% fixed dividend preferred stock SATS at a price of $90 per share, raising a total of approximately $630 million, and completed settlement on October 20.

Although CEO Matt Cole publicly stated that it aims to become the second-largest public holder by the end of the year, the company did not promise to use all of the newly raised capital to buy Bitcoin, which left doubts about the subsequent flow of funds.

Judging from the buying pace, Strive's offensive showed a trend of increasing week by week. According to data compiled by Woofun AI, the company bought 2,000 units from September 28 to October 2; in the following week (October 5 to 9), purchases increased to 3,311 units; in the most recent week (October 12 to 16), the purchase volume further soared to 4,045 units. In terms of transaction details, the last week's purchases were divided into two: 2,822 units purchased from October 12 to 13, costing about US$235 million; and 1,223 units purchased from October 14 to 16, with an average price of about $81,734. The combined average price of these two deals was approximately $82,803. According to weekly statistics, the average purchase price in the first week was about 84,422 US dollars, and the number of positions increased to 29,462; the average price in the second week was about 84,500 US dollars, and the number of positions increased to 32,773; the average price in the third week was about 82,803 US dollars, and the final position reached 36,818 units.

Notably, the sources of purchase capital for these three weeks varied: the first week mainly relied on SATA issuance, the second week came from SATA's additional ATM issuance, and the third week mainly stemmed from the exercise of warrants.

Looking at the overall market position pattern, Strategy topped the list with an absolute margin of 848,517; Metaplanet ranked second with 44,000; Twenty One Capital (XXI.US) ranked third with 43,514; Strive followed with 36,818; and the fifth place, MARA Holdings, held 35,577 units, which was only 1,241 different from Strive. Looking back at the beginning of 2026, Strive's holdings were only about 7,525, and today's explosive growth is impressive. According to media estimates, if Strive hopes to surpass Metaplanet by the end of the year, it will need to buy an average of about 700 bitcoins per week.

This goal seems feasible at the current buying pace, but requires continued financial support.

In contrast, the second-ranked Metaplanet recently adopted a more conservative strategy. On October 13, Metaplanet announced the issuance of 52 billion yen zero-interest convertible bonds. The funds raised were not used to increase Bitcoin holdings, but were used to repay Bitcoin mortgages of about 23.6 billion yen, and used about 28.3 billion yen to buy back stocks. By the end of September, Metaplanet's loans accounted for 17.7% of Bitcoin's net asset value, exceeding the 10% limit set by the company. In the third quarter, Metaplanet first sold 10,000 bitcoins, then bought back 11,000, a net increase of 1,000, thus surpassing Twenty One Capital to second place.

This deleveraging operation is in stark contrast to Strive's aggressive expansion.

Strive's SATS funding structure is well-designed, but it also comes at a high cost. On October 13, Strive launched the SATS offering, which was originally planned to issue 5 million shares; on the evening of October 15, the company raised the size to 7 million shares, priced at $90 million per share, and raised a total of about $630 million, with Barclays (BCS.US) and Cantor leading underwriting. Delivery of the offering was completed on October 20, and SATS was immediately listed on NASDAQ. At a face value of $100, SATS has an annualized cumulative dividend rate of 15%, accrued daily, and the first dividend date is November 9.

At an issue price of $90, the actual yield is approximately 16.7%; at a total face value of $700 million, dividends of approximately $105 million are payable each year. At the time of delivery, the company funded its dividend reserves at $22.50 per share (equivalent to an 18-month dividend), totaling approximately $157.5 million. In terms of settlement order, SATS is second only to SATA, a floating interest rate preferred stock that was previously issued, but has priority over common shares. Once the offering was completed, Strive's capital structure was approximately $2.8 billion in common stock, $1.4 billion in SATA, and $700 million in SATS, with no debt.

In terms of the purchasing power of capital, based on the net issuance amount of about US$608 million, if all of it is used to buy coins, about 7,330 bitcoins can be purchased at a price of about US$83,000, and the position will rise to about 44,150, which is only about 150 more than Metaplanet's 44,000; it would take about US$596 million to fill the 7,182 gap, which is only about US$12.2 million less than the net amount. Once the price of Bitcoin exceeds approximately $8.47 million, this net amount alone will not be enough to complete the transcendence; SATA or other funds will still be needed to supplement it. Furthermore, the $157.5 billion dividend reserve comes from the company's cash on hand and securities holdings, and does not account for issuance proceeds. The launch of SATS is directly linked to the expiration of the warrants. Strive previously had a batch of traditional warrants with an exercise price of $27, corresponding to 15,255,900 shares. The last batch expired on October 13.

The centralized exercise of October 12 and 13 brought the company approximately US$369 million and added approximately 13.7 million Class A common shares. CEO Cole said that once the warrants are cleared, it is the right time to launch a second preferred stock. The company's stated uses of funds include buying Bitcoin and related products, purchasing income-generating assets, and buying back common stock or SATA, but the exact ratio and schedule are not specified. The company mentioned in 8-K that as long as Bitcoin falls below $100,000, management aims to keep the amplification ratio above 60%.

Compared to industry-leading Strategy, Strive's purchase volume showed a multiple difference. From October 5 to 11, Strive bought 3,311 units, while Strategy only bought 250, which is about 13 times the latter. From October 12 to 18, Strategy's 8-K showed that it bought 267 units, with an average price of about $82,900, and held 848,517 units; Strive bought 4,045 units over the same period, which is about 15 times Strategy's.

It should be emphasized that the comparison here is two weeks of buying volume rather than position size: Strategy's position is still more than 20 times that of Strive. Strategy's focus has turned to capital structure management, and its 8-K on October 19 showed that the board raised the preferred share repurchase authorization from $2 billion to $3 billion, leaving $1.16 billion as of October 18; it bought back $192.4 million STRC in the week of October 5-11. Strategy also sold Bitcoin this summer to buy back STRC and pay preferred stock dividends (see its 8-K on July 6 and August 10).

Strive followed a different path: using preferred stock financing to buy coins without borrowing money. Its leverage comes from SATA and SATS two-tier perpetual preferred stocks rather than convertible bonds. Strive acquired Semler Scientific in an all-stock deal of approximately $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, which was completed in January 2026. This is the first time a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company has acquired a similar company. Strive, co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, held only around 70 bitcoins before going public and announcing the merger in September 2025; according to the company, its BTC yield has reached 63.2% since this year.

However, there are multiple risks hidden behind Strive's aggressive strategy. The first is cash pressure. Preferred shares are between stocks and bonds, and the company promises to pay regular dividends at the agreed ratio and has priority over common shares. SATS's dividend rate is fixed at 15% and is not convertible. Essentially, it's more like a high-interest loan. Regardless of whether Bitcoin rises or falls, the company has to spend about $105 million in cash every year. The company's other preferred stock, SATA, has about 13.5 million shares (disclosed in early October), about $1.35 billion at a face value of $100 per share; its dividend rate is not fixed, adjusted by the company, and was around 13% in September.

Together, the two preferred stocks cost approximately $2.8 billion in dividends each year. The company set aside cash equivalent to an 18-month dividend in advance, which is worry-free in the short term, but once the reserve is used up, it still needs to be covered by new financing or operating income. The second is loss. Bitcoin has fallen sharply from its high of around $120,000 in October 2025, and the market value of Strive's holdings is below the purchase cost, mainly due to previous high purchases that have dragged down the whole. The company's recent purchase price is between $8.1 million and $8.5 million, while the current price of Bitcoin is around $82,000 to $8.4 million. Some of the purchases in recent weeks have remained largely flat.

Furthermore, there is the ranking of claims for preferred stocks. Preferred shareholders rank ahead of common shareholders. The more preferred shares are issued, the less common shareholders receive. The company's most important indicator is “the number of bitcoins per share,” but this figure does not reflect higher ranking claims brought about by preferred stocks. On September 30, the face value of SATA accounted for about 55.3% of the value of Bitcoin, that is, for every $100 of Bitcoin, about $55 must first correspond to preferred shares. This ratio has not yet been included in SATS.

Furthermore, in early October, the company disclosed a SATA repurchase limit of up to 500 million US dollars, but this amount was about 210 million US dollars more than the cash disclosed at the time. It is unclear whether it will be used, and the money spent on the repurchase can no longer be used to buy coins. Finally, there is shorting pressure. According to September data, about 23.1% of tradable shares were sold short, which is equivalent to about 1 out of every 4.3 shares being bet on falling. Cole said that ASST was shorted to a greater extent than any company in the S&P 500, and described the October situation as a contest between bears and warrant holders. Warrant holders want the stock to stand at the exercise price of $27, while bears are betting on a decline. On Wall Street, the 5 brokerage firms tracking the stock all gave it a buy rating, while 1 held and 1 sold it. The next thing worth paying attention to is the 8-K announced on the evening of October 26. This will be SATS's first purchase disclosure after delivery on October 20. It can be seen how much of the newly raised capital actually flows into Bitcoin. Furthermore, on November 9, SATS will pay dividends for the first time, which is an important point in testing whether fixed dividends can be paid on time.

Furthermore, whether the $500 million SATA repurchase credit will be used will also affect the amount of cash the company can use to buy coins.