According to Woofun AI, Strive (ASST.US) filed an 8-K with the SEC on October 13, disclosing that it purchased 3,311 bitcoins for approximately $280 million between October 5 and October 9 at an average price of $84,500, bringing its total holdings to 32,773 BTC.
This company, founded in Dallas in 2022 by Vivek Ramaswamy and led by Matt Cole, is reshaping its balance sheet through aggressive capital operations, marking its largest single accumulation to date.
This purchase not only set a new record for the company's own acquisitions but also underscored its firm commitment to allocating bitcoin assets in the current market environment, attempting to rapidly expand its asset scale on a zero-debt basis through a high-leverage preferred stock financing model.
Among publicly listed bitcoin-holding companies, Strive (ASST.US) currently ranks fifth, a position that makes it the leader of the industry's second tier.
The top four giants are Strategy (MSTR.US) holding 848,250 bitcoins, Metaplanet holding 44,000, Twenty One Capital (XXI.US) holding 43,514, and MARA (MARA.US) holding 35,577.
Although Strive's (ASST.US) holdings are smaller than those of the top players, its growth momentum far outpaces its peers.
Looking back at its accumulation history, the company purchased 5,816 bitcoins in a single transaction in September 2025, and after completing its merger with Semler Scientific in January 2026, it absorbed approximately 5,048 more bitcoins.
This stepwise asset accumulation strategy allowed it to rapidly narrow the gap with leading companies in a short period and laid a solid asset foundation for subsequent leveraged operations.
Meanwhile, Strive's (ASST.US) maneuvers in the capital markets have been equally intensive and complex.
On the same day, the company announced that warrants worth approximately $208 million had been fully exercised, bringing a new capital injection for common shareholders.
More critically, the company made important amendments to the terms of its Series 1 perpetual preferred stock SATA (SATA.US), explicitly stipulating that the stock issuance price shall not be lower than $100 per share, and adjusted the definition of "business day" to allow flexible weekend dividend distributions under future conditions.
In addition, the company filed a prospectus for its Series 2 perpetual preferred stock SATS, which carries a fixed annual dividend rate of 15% and is expected to raise approximately $500 million.
This series of moves indicates that Strive (ASST.US) is optimizing its capital structure through refined financial instrument design to support larger-scale bitcoin purchase plans.
Strive's (ASST.US) transformation journey is quite dramatic.
The company was originally co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy in 2022, headquartered in Dallas, and its CEO Matt Cole previously worked for 15 years at CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the United States, managing fixed-income assets.
The company started in the asset management business and built its reputation by opposing mainstream ESG investment philosophies.
After transforming into a bitcoin asset management company, its original asset management business is still handled by its subsidiary Strive (ASST.US) Asset Management, which currently manages approximately $3 billion in assets.
In May 2025, Strive (ASST.US) announced a merger with Nasdaq-listed small-cap company Asset Entities (ASST.US) to achieve a public listing, with the ticker symbol remaining ASST.
After the merger was completed on September 12, 2025, Strive (ASST.US) officially transformed into a bitcoin asset management company and set the bitcoin return rate as the company's official cost of capital benchmark, requiring that all investment projects must yield returns higher than bitcoin's return to be considered successful.
Ten days after the merger with Asset Entities, on September 22, 2025, Strive (ASST.US) purchased 5,816 bitcoins in a single transaction while announcing it would acquire Semler Scientific through a stock swap.
Semler was originally a medical company focused on vascular disease diagnostic equipment, and it began accumulating bitcoins in May 2024, becoming the second U.S. listed company to adopt this strategy.
The acquisition was completed in January 2026, adding approximately 5,048 bitcoins to Strive's (ASST.US) balance sheet, which the company called the first-ever bitcoin asset management company merger between publicly listed companies.
In terms of holdings growth rate, Strive's (ASST.US) performance stands out notably.
In the 8-week period from August 14 to October 9, the company added another 12,527 bitcoins, growing its total holdings by approximately 62%.
In contrast, the top four bitcoin-holding companies have seen their holdings growth nearly stall: Strategy's (MSTR.US) holdings only increased from 840,447 bitcoins on August 16 to 848,250 bitcoins on October 11, a gain of less than 1%; Metaplanet sold 10,000 bitcoins in the third quarter and then bought back 11,000, for a net increase of only 1,000 bitcoins; Twenty One Capital (XXI.US) has not increased its holdings since July 2025; and MARA's (MARA.US) holdings have remained essentially unchanged since May.
This stark contrast highlights Strive's (ASST.US) more aggressive expansion strategy in the current market environment and reflects the differentiated choices different companies make regarding bitcoin asset allocation.
The perpetual preferred stock financing model adopted by Strive (ASST.US) is the core of its zero-debt operation.
In January 2025, Strategy (MSTR.US) launched its Series 1 perpetual preferred stock STRK (STRK.US), pioneering an alternative financing path.
Perpetual preferred stock has no maturity date, meaning the issuer does not need to repay principal and only needs to pay dividends as scheduled.
Perpetual preferred stock also ranks ahead of common stock in dividend distribution and asset allocation order during bankruptcy liquidation.
For the issuing company, this financial instrument functions like a loan that requires no principal repayment and only interest payments: yield-focused investors can obtain higher yields, while the company gains capital to purchase bitcoins.
As long as bitcoin's long-term price appreciation exceeds the cost of preferred stock dividends, all excess returns accrue to common shareholders.
In July 2025, Strategy (MSTR.US) launched STRC (STRC.US), a perpetual preferred stock whose dividend rate adjusts monthly, designed to stabilize its share price near the $100 par value.
Michael Saylor called this structure "digital credit."
In November 2025, Strive (ASST.US) launched SATA (SATA.US), whose structural design is very similar to Strategy's (MSTR.US) product but with two key modifications: first, it completely avoided taking on interest-bearing debt, instead using SATA (SATA.US) to refinance the convertible notes inherited from the Semler Scientific acquisition, leaving no debt on the company's balance sheet.
By comparison, Strategy (MSTR.US) still has approximately $6.7 billion in outstanding convertible notes.
Second, starting in June 2026, the company stipulated that dividends must be paid weekly.
This change has already had a backfire effect on Strategy (MSTR.US): the larger company proposed converting all of its preferred stock to daily interest calculations, with a shareholder vote scheduled for October 28.
Strive (ASST.US) is not the only company adopting this operating model.
Japanese listed company Metaplanet announced in November 2025 that it planned to privately issue convertible preferred stock called MERCURY to overseas institutional investors, with an annual dividend rate of 4.9%, but its public listing plan has yet to materialize due to Japanese exchange regulations.
U.K.-based The Smarter Web Company completed the issuance of its preferred stock series MORE on October 12, with an initial annual dividend rate of 12% paid weekly, raising a total of £10 million, and these shares are expected to begin trading on the London Stock Exchange on October 14 鈥?though the amount raised is far smaller than Strive's (ASST.US).
Strive uses a so-called "amplification ratio" to measure its leverage level, which is its total preferred equity and debt divided by the total market value of its bitcoin holdings.
The higher the ratio, the greater the upside in common stock price when bitcoin rises; and the more severe the decline when bitcoin falls.
ASST's (ASST.US) stock price trajectory is a typical example: accounting for the 1-for-20 reverse stock split carried out in February of this year, the stock was priced at $169.80 on the day of the merger with Asset Entities, fell to $7.16 by February 24, and only recovered to $27.59 by October 13.
Its price volatility is far higher than bitcoin's own volatility.
Over the past week, Strive (ASST.US) has taken a series of measures to adjust its capital structure.
On October 5, the company first announced an additional $500 million share repurchase authorization for SATA (SATA.US) to support its share price during periods of market volatility.
In the latest disclosure, warrants worth approximately $208 million have been exercised, giving holders the right to purchase newly issued common stock at a pre-agreed exercise price, thereby bringing a new round of common stock financing to the company.
In addition, the company formally stipulated in SATA's (SATA.US) terms that the stock issuance price shall not be lower than $100 per share (previously this was only a verbal commitment), in order to boost holder confidence.
At the same time, the definition of "business day" was modified to no longer exclude weekends, so that dividends can be flexibly distributed on weekends once regulatory and settlement conditions permit.
The short-term dividend payment plan remains unchanged.
The company also filed a prospectus for its Series 2 perpetual preferred stock SATS, which ranks lower than SATA (SATA.US) in liquidation priority, carries a fixed annual dividend rate of 15%, and is expected to raise approximately $500 million.
The direct purpose of launching SATS is to further increase the company's leverage level.
The common stock raised recently through warrant exercises has reduced the amplification ratio, and Cole stated on the X platform that the company's goal is to maintain this ratio above 60% even when bitcoin's price is below $100,000.
The decision to adopt a fixed dividend rate is also based on an obvious observation: since the launch of SATA (SATA.US) and STRC (STRC.US), these two stocks have traded above their $100 par value on only 24% and 16% of trading days, respectively, indicating that floating-rate structures cannot stabilize their market prices.
Woofun AI data shows that as of October 9, Strive (ASST.US) had approximately $310 million in cash on its balance sheet.
After deducting the $180 million reserved for SATA (SATA.US) as a one-year dividend reserve, the company still has approximately $130 million in available funds.
If SATS can raise the planned $500 million, after deducting the $110 million reserved as an 18-month dividend reserve, approximately $390 million would remain available for purchasing bitcoins.
Combined, these two funding sources total approximately $500 million, enough to purchase about 6,000 bitcoins at current market prices, which would bring the amplification ratio to approximately 60%.
In addition, the final data on warrant exercises has not yet been fully tallied, and the proceeds from these exercises could also generate additional bitcoin purchase demand.
By contrast, Strategy (MSTR.US) is currently doing the opposite.
Last week, it purchased only 250 bitcoins while spending approximately $192 million to repurchase STRC (STRC.US) shares.
The company also holds approximately $4.9 billion in dedicated cash reserves specifically for paying dividends.
Its total bitcoin holdings are already about 26 times those of Strive (ASST.US).
As the world's largest bitcoin asset management company, Strategy's (MSTR.US) top priority is currently to maintain the credibility of the "digital credit" structure advocated by Michael Saylor.
Raising leverage means bearing higher capital costs.
Its two series of preferred stock generate total annual dividend payments exceeding $250 million, a figure that is almost equivalent to 10% of the current market value of Strive's (ASST.US) bitcoin holdings.
As of October 9, the total cost of Strive's bitcoin holdings was approximately $2.9 billion, while the fair market value of these bitcoins was approximately $2.7 billion, resulting in an unrealized book loss of approximately $200 million.
Strive's (ASST.US) internal model uses a 50% annual bitcoin price appreciation as its base-case scenario, under which the difference between bitcoin's return and the 15% annual preferred stock cost accrues to common shareholders.
Cole stated that Strive (ASST.US) is expected to become the second-largest corporate bitcoin holder before the end of the year, and whether this goal can be achieved depends on two factors: first, whether SATA (SATA.US) can continue to issue shares above par value, and second, whether the SATS fundraising can be successfully completed.
However, whether this leveraged model can truly generate returns for common shareholders ultimately depends on whether bitcoin's long-term price appreciation can exceed the 13% to 15% annual cost of the preferred stock.
Looking ahead, the success of Strive's (ASST.US) strategy will depend heavily on its capital markets execution capability and bitcoin's long-term price performance.
Cole stated that the company will release a supplementary 8-K filing before U.S. stock market open on October 14 to disclose the final exercise results, which had not been published as of the time of reporting.
If the SATS series is successfully issued, Strive (ASST.US) is expected to rise to become the industry's second-largest bitcoin holder before the end of the year, surpassing competitors such as Metaplanet.
However, the 15% fixed dividend rate also brings enormous financial pressure, and any short-term bitcoin price correction could worsen its book losses, further affecting the market performance of SATA (SATA.US) and SATS.
This high-leverage, high-yield, high-risk model is both the core characteristic that distinguishes Strive (ASST.US) from traditional giants like Strategy (MSTR.US) and the biggest source of uncertainty it faces in the future.
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