Strive Buys Strategy Stocks; Bitcoin Treasury Companies Begin Nesting Into One Another

Author: Kuli, TechFlow

On March 11, a company named Strive announced several things.

It increased its Bitcoin holdings by 179 BTC, bringing its total to 13,311 BTC—valued at approximately $930 million. It raised the dividend rate on its preferred stock, SATA, to 12.75%. And it spent $50 million purchasing Strategy’s preferred stock, STRC.

$50 million represents over one-third of Strive’s corporate treasury.

What does Strive do? It accumulates Bitcoin. What does Strategy do? It also accumulates Bitcoin.

This situation has become: a Bitcoin-accumulating company using over one-third of its own funds to buy shares issued by another Bitcoin-accumulating company.

Jeff Walton, Strive’s Chief Risk Officer, posted on X (formerly Twitter), calling STRC a “high-quality credit product with strong liquidity and a risk-return profile superior to traditional fixed-income instruments.” In plain English: “We think this is more attractive than U.S. Treasury bonds.”

He also ran the numbers: $50 million invested in U.S. Treasuries would yield only a few million dollars in annual interest. By contrast, investing in STRC could generate an additional $3.9 million in annualized returns.

That sounds like a great deal.

But pause for a moment: where does Strategy get the money to issue STRC?

Strategy raises capital through STRC issuance—and uses the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. STRC can pay dividends only if Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings don’t fall too sharply.

So the underlying logic of Strive’s investment is: “My Bitcoin will rise in value, their Bitcoin will rise too—and only if theirs rises can they pay me dividends, which I’ll then use to buy even more Bitcoin.”

This isn’t diversification—it’s nesting dolls.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Strive

Many people know Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), but far fewer know Strive.

Yet today, Strive holds 13,311 BTC—worth roughly $930 million—surpassing Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings and ranking around tenth globally among publicly listed companies.

Strive’s founder is Vivek Ramaswamy, a second-generation Indian immigrant, Harvard undergraduate, and Yale Law School graduate. In 2022, he co-founded Strive in Ohio with a high school classmate, launching an asset management firm and ETF products.

Early investors included PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

Within a year and a half of launch, Strive’s assets under management exceeded $1 billion. But Ramaswamy didn’t stay long: he resigned in early 2023 to run for U.S. president. He lost the Republican primary to Trump, then pivoted to running for governor of Ohio this year—an effort notably endorsed by both Trump and Musk.

After Ramaswamy stepped down, Matt Cole took over as CEO. Previously, Cole managed $70 billion at CalPERS—the California Public Employees’ Retirement System—and came from traditional finance. Yet last year, he made an unorthodox decision.

In September 2025, Cole announced Strive’s transformation—from an asset management firm into a “Bitcoin treasury company.” Strive immediately spent $675 million to acquire over 5,800 BTC at an average price of $116,000 each. That same month, Strive announced its acquisition of another publicly traded company, Semler Scientific; following the merger, its Bitcoin holdings surpassed 10,000 BTC.

Six months later, its holdings have grown to 13,311 BTC.

A fund company founded in 2022 has, in just three years, become one of the world’s top ten corporate Bitcoin holders. Its pace is astonishing—so rapid that it naturally prompts a question:

Where did Strive get the money to buy all this Bitcoin?

Nesting-doll stock issuance

Where did Strive get the money to buy Bitcoin? From issuing stock.

Last November, Strive launched a preferred stock called SATA. Investors purchase SATA, and Strive pays quarterly dividends—currently at an annualized rate of 12.75%. The proceeds are used to buy Bitcoin.

This model wasn’t invented by Strive. Its creator is Michael Saylor.

Saylor’s company, Strategy, holds over 730,000 BTC—the largest corporate Bitcoin holding in the world. Last year, Strategy launched a similar product, STRC: investors buy STRC, Strategy pays dividends—at an annualized rate currently set at 11.5%—and the proceeds are likewise deployed to acquire Bitcoin.

Up to this point, both companies operated independently, using identical logic but without interconnection.

But the March 11 transaction linked the two. Strive allocated $50 million to purchase STRC.

The chain now looks like this:

Strategy issues STRC to raise funds for Bitcoin purchases; Strive buys STRC to earn interest; Strive then issues its own SATA to raise more funds—to buy more Bitcoin and more STRC.

Layer upon layer—each paying double-digit annualized yields to investors, with every layer’s ability to service those yields resting on a single foundation: Bitcoin must not crash.

If Bitcoin rises, everyone profits. If Bitcoin falls, all interest payments hang in the balance—and no layer can exit independently, because your asset is someone else’s liability.

Three products. Three interest streams. Three sets of investors. Underpinning them all: one asset—BTC, which must not fall.

Meanwhile, Strive’s own stock, ASST, peaked at $268 within the past 52 weeks—and now trades below $9, representing a 97% decline. On the day Strive announced its STRC purchase (March 11), its share price rose just 5.52%.

Last October, ASST briefly fell below $0.80—nearly 50% below the net asset value attributable to its Bitcoin holdings.

So the picture is this: a company holding $930 million in Bitcoin has a market capitalization of just over $500 million. Its share price has plunged 97% from its peak—yet management continues doubling down: buying more Bitcoin, purchasing STRC, and raising SATA’s dividend rate.

Meanwhile, Strategy’s own stock, MSTR, has declined for eight consecutive months this year—and Bitcoin itself has pulled back significantly from last year’s highs.

Yet everyone on this chain is still adding exposure.

Strategy acquired 66,000 new BTC in the first two-plus months of this year—more than in any prior full year. Strive, while accumulating Bitcoin, also spent $50 million on STRC. SATA’s dividend yield has risen steadily from its initial 10% to 12.75%. STRC’s yield has climbed from 10% to 11.5%.

Rising yields signal increasing difficulty retaining investors—requiring ever-higher payouts.

Data shows that over 200 publicly listed companies worldwide have now officially adopted the “Bitcoin treasury strategy.” Before 2025, that number stood at fewer than 30.

Saylor pioneered this model—and over 200 companies copied his playbook. Now, they’re beginning to buy each other’s issued products.

When everyone places their bets on the same table, the difference between “structured financing” and “concentrated gambling” may boil down to nothing more than a few extra arrows on a PowerPoint slide.