The same strategy for perpetual preferred shares, Strategy is buying back, while Strive is increasing issuance.

Written by: Sanqing, Foresight News

On October 13, Strive (ASST) submitted an 8-K filing to the U.S. SEC, disclosing that it spent approximately $280 million to buy 3,311 bitcoins from October 5 to 9, with an average price of about $84,500, bringing its total holdings to 32,773 bitcoins. This represents the largest single acquisition since the company first invested by purchasing 5,816 bitcoins in September 2025 and merging approximately 5,048 bitcoins from Semler Scientific in January 2026.

According to data from Bitcoin Treasuries, Strive currently ranks fifth among listed companies by bitcoin holdings, with the top four being Strategy (848,250 bitcoins), Metaplanet (44,000 bitcoins), Twenty One Capital (43,514 bitcoins), and MARA (35,577 bitcoins).

On the same day, Strive disclosed multiple capital operations: approximately $208 million of warrants were executed; the first perpetual preferred share, SATA, completed a clause revision to formally include "issued at not less than $100" in the terms, and modified the definition of "business day" to reserve space for weekend dividend distributions in the future; simultaneously, a prospectus was submitted to issue a second perpetual preferred share, SATS, with a fixed annual interest rate of 15%, aiming to raise approximately $500 million.

From Anti-ESG Fund to Bitcoin Treasury

Strive was co-founded by U.S. entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in 2022 and is headquartered in Dallas; the company’s CEO Matt Cole previously managed fixed income assets for 15 years at CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the U.S. Starting as an asset management company, it gained fame for opposing the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investment trend, and after transforming into a bitcoin treasury, it retains its asset management business under the subsidiary Strive Asset Management, currently managing approximately $3 billion.

In May 2025, Strive announced its merger with Nasdaq-listed small-cap company Asset Entities, retaining the stock code ASST. After the merger completed on September 12, Strive transformed into a bitcoin treasury company, defining bitcoin as the company’s "hurdle yield," meaning any investment must outperform bitcoin to be considered successful.

Ten days after the merger with Asset Entities, on September 22, 2025, Strive made a single purchase of 5,816 bitcoins and announced the acquisition of Semler Scientific through a share exchange. Semler, originally a medical company focusing on vascular disease diagnostic devices, began accumulating bitcoin in May 2024, becoming the second publicly listed company in the U.S. to do so. This acquisition was completed in January 2026, with Strive absorbing approximately 5,048 bitcoins from Semler, claiming this was the first merger among publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies.

Since then, Strive's pace of bitcoin acquisitions has varied until a noticeable acceleration in late August: from August 14 to October 9 over eight weeks, it increased its holdings by 12,527 bitcoins, a growth of approximately 62%.

In contrast, the top four companies have seen their growth nearly stagnate during the same period: Strategy 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, then bought back 11,000 bitcoins, resulting in a net increase of 1,000 bitcoins; Twenty One Capital has not added to its holdings since July 2025; MARA's holdings have remained essentially flat since May.

No Debt, Buying Bitcoin with Perpetual Preferred Shares

The basic strategy of bitcoin treasury companies is to finance through the capital market to buy bitcoin. The most direct method is issuing common stock, but this dilutes the equity of existing shareholders. In January 2025, Strategy introduced its first perpetual preferred share, STRK, exploring another path.

Perpetual preferred shares have no maturity date, and companies do not need to repay principal but only need to pay dividends regularly, with dividend and payment priority over common stocks. For companies, it is like a loan where only interest is paid, never maturing: stable-income-seeking investors receive high interest, and companies obtain funds to buy bitcoin; as long as bitcoin’s long-term appreciation exceeds the dividend costs, the excess returns belong to common shareholders. In July 2025, Strategy introduced STRC, which adjusts the dividend rate monthly, aiming to stabilize the price around the $100 par value, which Michael Saylor referred to as "digital credit."

In November 2025, Strive launched a mechanism almost identical to SATA but made two modifications: first, it incurred no debt and replaced the remaining convertible bonds from Semler with SATA, currently holding zero debt on the books, while Strategy still carries approximately $6.7 billion in convertible bonds; second, from June 2026, dividends will be paid on each business day. This latter modification has indirectly affected Strategy, which has proposed to convert all its preferred shares to daily interest calculation and is scheduled for a vote on October 28.

Strive is not the only one following this strategy. Japan's Metaplanet announced in November 2025 the issuance of convertible preferred shares MERCURY with a 4.9% annual interest rate directed to overseas institutions, but its public listing plan has been hindered by Japanese exchange rules and has yet to materialize; the UK's The Smarter Web Company completed the issuance of preferred shares MORE on October 12 with an initial annual interest of 12% and weekly dividends, raising £10 million, and expects to start trading on the London Stock Exchange on October 14, but the scale is much smaller than Strive.

Strive uses the "leverage ratio" (the proportion of the sum of preferred shares and debt to the market value of bitcoin) to measure leverage. The higher the ratio, the more common stocks rise when bitcoin goes up, and the sharper they fall when bitcoin goes down. The price trend of ASST exemplifies this: adjusted for the 20-for-1 reverse split on February 20 this year, its stock price dropped from $169.80 on the merger day to $7.16 on February 24, and then rose back to $27.59 on October 13, showing far greater fluctuations than bitcoin itself.

Issuing 15% Preferred Shares, Annual Dividend Payments Will Exceed $250 Million

In the past week, Strive has been actively adjusting its capital structure. On October 5, the company revealed a new $500 million buyback quota for SATA, which could be used for repurchases if necessary. In its latest disclosures, approximately $208 million worth of warrants (rights to subscribe for new shares at a set price) were exercised, bringing in common stock financing for the company.

Additionally, SATA’s formal inclusion of "issued at not less than $100" into the terms aims to stabilize holder confidence, and the definition of "business day" no longer excludes weekends, reserving space for future weekend dividends when regulatory and settlement conditions allow; short-term dividend arrangements remain unchanged; meanwhile, the company filed a prospectus for its second perpetual preferred share SATS, with payment priority following SATA, fixed annual interest of 15%, and plans to raise approximately $500 million.

The direct purpose of launching SATS is to re-leverage. The common stock financing from the exercise of warrants previously lowered the leverage ratio, and Cole indicated on X that the goal is to maintain this ratio above 60% when bitcoin is below $100,000. The shift to a fixed rate is also a response to Strive’s statistics showing that since the launch of SATA and STRC, only 24% and 16% of trading days have closed above $100, respectively, indicating that floating rates have not stabilized prices.

Foresight News estimates that as of October 9, Strive has approximately $310 million in cash, after reserving about $180 million for the one-year dividend reserve for SATA, leaving about $130 million available for use; if SATS successfully raises $500 million, after deducting approximately $110 million for the 18-month dividend reserve, about $390 million would remain. Together, that amounts to about $500 million, which at current prices could buy around 6,000 bitcoins, thus raising the leverage ratio to about 60%.

Furthermore, the data on warrants is not yet complete, and this exercised capital may also lead to some buying. Cole has indicated that a supplemental 8-K will be released before the U.S. stock market opens on October 14 to disclose the final exercise situation, which has not yet been announced.

Meanwhile, Strategy is currently operating in the opposite direction. Last week it bought only 250 bitcoins but spent about $192 million to repurchase STRC, while holding approximately $4.9 billion in dollar reserves specifically for paying interest. Its holdings are about 26 times that of Strive, and as the largest bitcoin treasury company, Strategy is currently most concerned with maintaining the credibility of what Michael Saylor calls "digital credit."

The cost of leveraging is high financial expenses. The total annual dividends for the two preferred shares will exceed $250 million, close to 10% of Strive's current bitcoin holding value. As of October 9, its total bitcoin cost is about $2.9 billion, with a fair value of about $2.7 billion, still reflecting an unrealized loss of about $200 million.

Strive's projections are based on an annual bitcoin price increase of 50% as a baseline scenario, with the excess after deducting 15% costs going to common shareholders. Cole has stated that Strive has the opportunity to become the second-largest public company holder of bitcoin by the end of the year, and whether it can catch up depends on whether SATA can continue to issue above par and whether SATS can raise full funds; whether this leveraged model can ultimately generate profits for common shareholders will hinge on whether bitcoin's long-term appreciation can outpace the preferred share costs of 13% to 15%.