Why Is Strive More Aggressive Than Strategy When Both Raise Capital to Buy Bitcoin?

Author | Wu Blockchain

TL;DR：

• Strive added 6,182 BTC in a week and announced a new offering plan of up to $1 billion after completing a $630 million SATS offering. Meanwhile, Strategy neither bought nor sold BTC and spent approximately $204.9 million repurchasing STRC.
• Assuming a BTC price of $80,000 for both companies, the nominal value of Strive’s preferred stock equals approximately 61.1% of its BTC holdings’ value, while Strategy’s convertible debt and preferred stock combined equal approximately 29.6%. Annualized dividends for Strive and dividends plus interest for Strategy amount to approximately 8.4% and 2.2% of their respective BTC holdings’ value. These ratios do not deduct cash or other assets.
• SATS carries a fixed annual dividend rate of 15%. At its initial offering price of $90 per share, annual dividends equal approximately 16.7% of gross proceeds. The prospectus discloses that the company has established a reserve covering the first 18 months of dividends on the initial SATS issuance and expects to fund cash dividends primarily through additional financing.
• Strive’s management views increasing the share of preferred capital as a way to outperform Bitcoin over the long term. Strategy, meanwhile, has incorporated repurchasing STRC at a discount into its capital allocation strategy to reduce future dividend obligations. Both companies’ stated uses of financing proceeds extend beyond buying Bitcoin.

As the DAT boom fades, few publicly listed companies continue to hold and buy Bitcoin — even Strategy has begun selling. Against this backdrop, a Bitcoin treasury company pursuing an even more aggressive strategy has emerged: Strive.

1.Who Is Strive? From an Anti-ESG Asset Manager to a Bitcoin Treasury Company

Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) did not start out as a Bitcoin treasury company. Founded in 2022 by biopharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Anson Frericks, former president of Anheuser-Busch Sales & Distribution, Strive began as an asset management firm. Ramaswamy later ran in the Republican presidential primaries. The company initially drew attention for opposing the inclusion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals in corporate decision-making, arguing that companies and asset managers should prioritize financial returns for shareholders. Strive launched its first ETF in August 2022. By the time it went public through a merger in 2025, its asset management business had more than $2 billion in client assets under management. Those were client assets, not the company’s own funds available to purchase Bitcoin.

The company’s strategy is currently led by Chairman and CEO Matt Cole. According to its annual report, Cole spent 15 years in the global fixed income division of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) before joining Strive, overseeing more than $70 billion in actively managed fixed income assets. He joined Strive in 2022, became CEO in 2023, and assumed the chairman role after the company went public through a merger in 2025. Chief Financial Officer Benjamin Pham was the company’s first employee and executive at its founding. He previously worked at Roivant Sciences, founded by Ramaswamy, and served as Ramaswamy’s chief of staff, bringing a background in corporate finance and transactions.

Strive’s involvement with Bitcoin predates its treasury business. When the company launched its wealth management business in November 2024, it had already proposed including Bitcoin in client portfolios. At the time, it cited global debt levels, long-term inflation, geopolitical pressures, and potential capital controls as risks that Bitcoin allocations were intended to hedge. The initial approach focused on allocating assets for clients; the company later went a step further, raising capital through a publicly listed entity to hold Bitcoin on its own balance sheet.

In May 2025, Strive announced plans to merge with Nasdaq-listed Asset Entities. The transaction closed on September 12 that year, with the company continuing to trade under the ticker ASST. The closing announcement disclosed approximately $750 million in secured equity financing, with up to an additional $750 million potentially available through the exercise of related warrants. Strive identified increasing Bitcoin per share and seeking to outperform direct Bitcoin ownership over the long term as its primary goals after going public. Beyond raising capital to purchase Bitcoin directly, Strive has also expanded its reserves through acquisitions. On January 16, 2026, the company completed its acquisition of Semler Scientific, bringing Semler’s existing Bitcoin reserves and operating business into its consolidated accounts.

In regulatory filings, the company explained that it uses Bitcoin’s investment performance as the hurdle rate for capital allocation, aiming to combine direct Bitcoin accumulation with other investment strategies to generate long-term returns exceeding those of Bitcoin itself. Perpetual preferred stock is also not a recent addition to its toolkit: shortly after going public, Strive announced plans to issue such securities to fund additional Bitcoin purchases and amplify common shareholders’ Bitcoin exposure. The subsequent launches of SATA and SATS put this financing approach into practice. Outperforming Bitcoin remains the company’s strategic objective, rather than an achieved result.

2.Strive Accelerates Capital Raising to Buy Bitcoin with 15% Dividend Preferred Stock

On October 26, Strive disclosed that it had purchased 6,182 BTC between October 17 and 23, bringing its holdings to 43,000 BTC. On the same day, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy, NASDAQ: MSTR) disclosed that it had neither bought nor sold Bitcoin between October 19 and 25, leaving its holdings unchanged at 848,517 BTC. It also spent approximately $204.9 million repurchasing STRC preferred stock.

Before these two announcements, Strive had just completed a $630 million offering of SATS perpetual preferred stock, followed by the establishment of an at-the-market (ATM) offering program of up to $1 billion. Strive’s management said it aims to outperform Bitcoin over the long term by maintaining a higher proportion of preferred capital. Strategy, meanwhile, had stated in its second-quarter announcement that it would continue repurchasing STRC when it trades below $100, depending on price and liquidity. Assuming the same Bitcoin price for both companies, Strive’s preferred capital and annualized dividends each represent a larger share of its Bitcoin holdings’ value than Strategy’s. The differences in their financing structures and recurring cash outflows explain the aggressiveness of Strive’s expansion strategy more clearly than the size of their Bitcoin holdings.

The initial SATS offering, completed on October 20, sold 7 million shares at $90 per share, raising gross proceeds of $630 million before underwriting fees and offering expenses. SATS pays a fixed annual dividend of 15% on a nominal amount of $100 per share and ranks below SATA but above common stock in dividend payments and liquidation distributions. SATA, meanwhile, is a variable-rate dividend security with a current annualized dividend rate of 13%. The company positions SATS as a product focused on income stability and SATA as one focused on price stability.

Management has clearly explained the purpose of the offering. In the closing announcement, Chairman and CEO Matt Cole said the company believes maintaining a higher Amplification Ratio is an important driver of long-term outperformance against Bitcoin, and that SATS adds another financing tool to pursue that goal. The metric is calculated by dividing the combined amount of preferred stock and debt by the value of the company’s Bitcoin holdings. Investor materials filed on October 13 reiterated management’s target of raising and maintaining this ratio above 60% when BTC trades below $100,000.

According to The Block’s account of StoneX’s October 26 research report, analyst Mark Palmer argued that SATS allows Strive to raise capital from two groups of income-focused investors simultaneously. Because SATS ranks below SATA, its proceeds add assets without adding claims senior to SATA. StoneX raised its ASST price target from $32 to $43 while maintaining a Buy rating. Offering documents also show that StoneX participated in underwriting the initial SATS offering, while its subsidiary StoneX Financial Inc. is one of the sales agents for the subsequent ATM program.

The additional financing also brings additional dividend obligations. At $15 per share annually, the initial SATS issuance requires $105 million in annual dividends, equivalent to approximately 16.7% of the $630 million in gross proceeds. The 15% rate is based on the nominal amount per share, while the 16.7% figure is based on the initial offering price and does not account for issuance costs.

3.At the Same Bitcoin Price, Strive’s Preferred Capital Ratio Is Roughly Twice Strategy’s

As of October 23, Strive had 14,030,176 SATA shares and 7 million SATS shares outstanding, totaling approximately $2.103 billion at a nominal amount of $100 per share. Data on Strategy’s website dated October 26 listed approximately $6.714 billion in convertible debt principal and $13.347 billion in preferred stock nominal value, totaling approximately $20.061 billion. This comparison includes only convertible debt principal and preferred stock nominal value, rather than either company’s total accounting liabilities.

For a consistent comparison, assuming a static BTC price of $80,000, Strive’s bitcoin holdings would be worth $3.44 billion, with the notional amount of its preferred stock representing approximately 61.1% of that value. Strategy’s bitcoin holdings would be worth approximately $67.881 billion, with the combined principal amount of its convertible debt and notional amount of its preferred stock representing approximately 29.6% of that value. The $80,000 figure is an assumed price, not the market price at the time of publication.

Dividend and interest expenses are calculated using the same assumed BTC price. Assuming the current share counts and dividend rates remain unchanged and dividends are declared in full, Strive’s two preferred stock series would pay combined annualized dividends of approximately $287 million, equivalent to about 8.4% of the value of its bitcoin holdings. Strategy’s annualized dividend and interest expenses, as disclosed on its official website, total approximately $1.509 billion, equivalent to about 2.2% of the value of its bitcoin holdings. Strategy’s STRC currently carries an annualized dividend rate of 12%, while its outstanding convertible debt includes tranches with coupon rates of 0%, 0.625%, 0.875%, and 2.25%, among others.

The ratios above do not deduct cash or other securities. Strive disclosed that, as of October 23, it also held approximately $504.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, along with STRC holdings with a fair value of approximately $50.18 million. Strategy disclosed that, as of October 25, it held approximately $4.83 billion in USD Reserve and $242.4 million in USD Cash. These assets have not been deducted from the numerators of the ratios above.

Bitcoin holdings per share reflect a separate change. Based on Strive’s disclosed assumed fully diluted share count, bitcoin holdings per share rose from approximately 29,039 satoshis to 33,066 satoshis between October 16 and 23, an increase of about 13.9%. This calculation simply divides the number of BTC held by the share count, without deducting the preferential claims of SATA and SATS or dividends. It does not represent the return earned by common shareholders over the same period.

Metrics with identical or similar names used by the two companies are not directly interchangeable. On Strategy’s website, “Debt” includes only the principal amount of convertible debt, while “Net Leverage” is calculated by subtracting dollar-denominated assets from that debt and dividing the result by the value of its BTC holdings; it excludes preferred stock. Its “Amplification” is BTC Reserve divided by Net Reserve, which differs from Strive’s percentage-based definition. This article compares the securities consistently using their nominal amounts, without treating the resulting ratios as accounting debt ratios or measures of actual share-price leverage.

4.How Will Strive Fund Its Substantial Dividends After Paying Off Its Debt?

Strive stated in its second-quarter earnings release that, as of August 7, it had no outstanding short- or long-term debt, its bitcoin was unencumbered, and it faced no margin requirements. Its October SATS prospectus also disclosed that the company had no debt on a consolidated basis as of October 23. By comparison, Strategy’s website lists September 16, 2027, as the earliest date on which convertible noteholders can require repayment, for the 0.625% notes due in 2028.

Perpetual preferred stock has no fixed maturity date, but the SATS documents provide holders with a right to require a cash repurchase under specified circumstances. Upon a contractually defined fundamental change, holders may require the company to repurchase their shares at the nominal amount per share plus accumulated unpaid dividends, subject to conditions including the availability of funds legally available for payment. This right differs from the ordinary repayment of principal at maturity.

The arrangements for funding dividends are set out in the prospectus. Strive’s October 26 ATM prospectus supplement disclosed that, at the closing of the initial offering, the company had increased its dividend reserve using existing cash and securities. At $22.50 per share, the reserve totaled approximately $157.5 million, covering the first 18 months of dividends on the initial SATS issuance. The company also stated that it expects to fund SATS cash dividends primarily through additional financing, including ATM securities offerings.

The October 26 filing also sets out restrictions: even if sufficient funds are available, the board may choose not to declare SATS dividends or to declare less than the full amount. If SATA dividends are not paid in full, the company is prohibited from paying SATS dividends. The filing warns that failure to declare and pay dividends in full could cause the price of SATS to decline. SATS dividends are cumulative and accrue under their terms regardless of whether they are declared or funds are legally available for payment.

SATA began paying dividends on each business day on June 16. The first SATS dividend has also been declared: according to the October 26 filing, Strive announced on October 21 an initial dividend of $0.8710 per share, with a record date of November 6 and a payment date of November 9.

5.Strategy Continues to Repurchase STRC as Strive Expands Its Financing

Strategy’s plans to repurchase STRC predate the October weekly disclosure. In the company’s July 30 second-quarter earnings release, CEO Phong Le said that if STRC traded below $100, the company intended to make disciplined repurchases based on market prices and liquidity, adding that repurchases at a discount could reduce future preferred dividend obligations. The same release disclosed that the company had established a BTC monetization program, with cumulative year-to-date sales totaling $218.4 million as of July 26.

The latest weekly repurchases were funded with USD Cash. Strategy’s October 26 Form 8-K shows that the company repurchased 2,068,459 STRC shares for approximately $204.9 million. The filing identifies USD Reserve as supporting preferred dividend and debt interest payments, while USD Cash is designated for bitcoin purchases, reserve replenishment, and other capital management activities.

Strive’s new offering program also allows for multiple uses of proceeds. In addition to bitcoin purchases, working capital, and other investments, its October 26 announcement lists cash dividend payments on preferred stock and repurchases of ASST common stock or SATA. The ATM prospectus supplement states that the sales agents are not required to sell any specific amount of securities. The $1 billion maximum therefore represents offering capacity, rather than funds already received or a committed budget for additional bitcoin purchases.

As of the disclosure dates cited above, Strive had repaid its interest-bearing debt and expanded its bitcoin holdings through two series of perpetual preferred stock. Strategy retained convertible debt and multiple series of preferred stock while continuing to repurchase STRC. Using the same assumed BTC price of $80,000, Strive’s preferred capital represented approximately 61.1% of the value of its bitcoin holdings, compared with 29.6% for Strategy’s combined convertible debt and preferred stock. Strive’s annualized dividend expenses were also higher relative to the value of its bitcoin holdings. This is the most direct difference between the two companies’ current capital structures.