Strive Paid for Fifth Place With New ASST and SATA Shares

Strive, Inc. bought 1,800 bitcoin last week for $143 million and paid for almost every coin by selling new stock. The Dallas company said the purchases ran from August 24 through August 28 at an average of $79,431, fees included.

Holdings rose to 23,156 bitcoin, and ASST jumped more than 5% on Monday after a month in which the stock more than doubled, even as the preferred that funded a large share of the coins still has to hold $100.

New Shares Paid for the 1,800 Coins

Matthew Cole, Strive’s chairman and chief executive, posted the week’s haul on August 31. An 8-K filed the same day records 1,800 bitcoin at about $79,431 and sets the new stack at 23,156, up from 21,356 seven days earlier. Cash and cash equivalents rose to $183.5 million from $171.9 million, a gain of $11.6 million after the spend.

The filing does not say “we sold stock to buy bitcoin,” but the share tables do the work. Class A common stock outstanding went from 79,890,888 to 83,470,035, an increase of 3,579,147 shares. Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, ticker SATA, went from 8,270,815 to 9,073,914, an increase of 803,099 shares. Class B stock stayed at 9,792,535. Effective common shares, Class A plus Class B, rose to 93,262,570.

Bitcoin Treasuries reconstructed the cash raised from those prints at about $154.6 million, with $80.3 million from SATA sold at the $100 stated amount and about $74.3 million from common at an implied $20.75 a share. Of that, $143.0 million went to bitcoin and $11.6 million stayed in cash. Preferred issuance nearly doubled from the 441,313 SATA shares sold the prior week. Common issuance was roughly flat against 3,646,300 shares the week before, even as ASST dollar volume more than doubled.

THE WEEK ON THE 8-K

It was Strive’s largest weekly bitcoin purchase since the week reported June 2, when the company added 2,500 coins, and it followed the 1,110 coins bought the week before at an average of $73,409. Two weeks of buying added 2,910 bitcoin. Holdings were 20,246 before that earlier tranche. Cole’s filing also lists dilution from more Class A and SATA stock among the risks investors are told to weigh.

SATA Has to Hold $100 or Buying Pauses

SATA is the preferred that makes the weekly machine run. True North Research, a Strive media subsidiary, describes a 13% variable preferred dividend on a $100 stated amount, paid each business day since June 16, 2026, with the 13.00% rate first effective April 15. The shares are cumulative, not convertible, and callable by Strive at $110 plus accrued dividends. They priced at $80 in the November 5, 2025 offering, which was upsized to 2.0 million shares.

Management’s policy, not a covenant, is that it does not intend to issue new SATA through the at-the-market program below $100. The target trading band was narrowed to $99 to $101. When the preferred spent nine weeks under par on weak bitcoin prices, that ATM sat idle. Friday, August 28, marked seven straight sessions back at par, which is why 803,099 new preferred shares could print in the same window as the 1,800 coins.

THE PREFERRED THAT FUNDS THE COINS

• Stated amount: $100 a share, with Strive’s policy against ATM issuance below that line.
• Coupon: 13.00% a year, board-adjustable, raised four times from a 12.00% IPO rate.
• Pay cycle: Cash each business day to the prior day’s holder of record, declared monthly.
• Call: Redeemable by Strive at $110 plus accrued dividends, which caps upside if the stock runs.
• Seniority: Above ASST common, below remaining debt, and not legally secured by the bitcoin.

That last point is the one the coupon does not fix. SATA holders have a preferred claim on residual assets, not a lien on the coins. A SATA-funded 147-bitcoin add earlier in August already showed how fast the preferred can refill the stack when it sits on the $100 line, and how quickly that channel closes when it does not. Early September dealing printed a few cents under par, which is the switch flipping toward off.

How Strive Reached Fifth on Some Tables

Bitcoin Treasuries put Strive past Bullish at 22,000 coins and into fifth among public bitcoin treasuries after the 8-K. On that board, Strategy leads at 845,050 after buying 4,603 bitcoin the same morning. Twenty One Capital holds 43,514, Metaplanet 43,000, and MARA Holdings 35,577. SpaceX sits below Strive at 18,712.

Another public tracker, as of August 31, still listed Bullish at 23,800 and Strive sixth at 23,156. Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company’s 30,021 coins would outrank Strive on raw holdings, but Bitcoin Treasuries dropped it from numbered ranks after its planned listing path with Cantor Equity Partners I ended on August 20. The fifth-place headline is a method choice, not a settled league.

PUBLIC HOLDERS ON AUGUST 31

A live count of 195 public companies hold bitcoin totaling 1,236,299 coins, about 5.89% of the 21 million cap. Strategy alone is 845,050, or 4.02% of that cap. Strive’s 23,156 coins are 0.11% of the 21 million. Cole has used the shorthand of more than one in every 1,000 bitcoin that will ever exist. The gap from fifth to first is still more than 820,000 coins.

The Common Rally and the Preferred Floor

ASST closed Friday, August 28, at $22.80 after a week that ran from $18.55 to $24.38. Monday’s jump of more than 5% extended a month in which the common more than doubled. The implied $20.75 average on the week’s 3,579,147 new Class A shares sat below the week’s midpoint, which reads as a formula print into strength rather than a chase of the high tick.

SATA, the paper that has to stay near $100 for the preferred ATM to run, was listed at $100.01 on August 31. The source week also had it a few cents under par. That split is the whole capital structure in one tape: common can double in a month because it is the amplified bitcoin residual, while the preferred is built to hug par so it can be sold again tomorrow.

Vivek Ramaswamy founded Strive and, with related holders, supplied the written consents that approved the Semler Scientific merger. Cole runs the ATM, the rate on SATA, and the public account. The January 2026 all-stock Semler close was billed as the first public bitcoin-treasury company buying another, and it folded Semler’s coins into the same ASST and SATA machine. The brand still carries Ramaswamy’s name. The weekly coin count now tracks whether Cole can keep SATA at the line.

Bitcoin per effective common share still rose last week, because 1,800 coins on 21,356 is an 8.4% stack increase while effective common shares rose about 4.0%. That per-share gain shrinks if the next week’s ATM is heavier relative to the coins it buys, which is the dilution the 8-K already flags.

$118 Million a Year on SATA Dividends

At 9,073,914 SATA shares, a $100 stated amount, and a 13% rate, the preferred bill is about $118.0 million a year. Cash of $183.5 million plus 505,000 shares of Strategy’s STRC preferred, marked at $49.152 million, gives $232.7 million against that coupon. Bitcoin Treasuries puts that cushion at about 23.7 months of the obligation. Cole said on a July podcast that SATA launched with 12 months of coverage and had been built toward 18 months of STRC plus dollars. The cushion is now near two years, and it is not a segregated trust.

THE DIVIDEND CUSHION

• SATA float: 9,073,914 shares, a $907.4 million liquidation preference at the $100 stated amount.
• Annual coupon: About $118.0 million at the current 13% rate, paid each business day.
• Cash plus STRC: $183.5 million in cash and $49.2 million of Strategy preferred, about 23.7 months of the bill.
• Reserve design: An 18-month mix Cole described as roughly 12 months in cash and 6 months in STRC, which is another issuer’s preferred, not bitcoin in a lockbox.

Strive reports the 23,156 bitcoin as unencumbered after paying off a Coinbase loan. Cole’s public line is no margin and no forced sale in a drawdown. The remaining debt on some Strive-adjacent summaries is a stub next to the preferred. The real fixed claim is SATA itself. If bitcoin falls hard enough that the preferred loses the $100 bid, the ATM that just bought 1,800 coins in a week is the first thing that stops, and the common that just doubled is the first thing that has to absorb the next raise.

TD Cowen Now Models 27,100 Bitcoin by Year End

Cole’s own post on the buy was the cleanest primary account of the week, and it named both tickers that paid for it.

Strive acquired an additional 1,800 BTC for $143M at an average cost of $79,431 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿23,156.

Matt Cole, Chief Executive Officer, on X

https://x.com/ColeMacro/status/2094396002308440227

A TD Cowen note moving on September 1, from analyst Lance Vitanza, put a $32 target on ASST, about 33% above the then-prevailing price, and said treasury activity has “meaningfully exceeded” the firm’s prior model. The same note forecasts more than 27,100 bitcoin at Strive by the end of 2026. From 23,156, that is about 3,944 coins over four months, or on the order of 235 a week if the path is linear.

August just printed 1,800 in five sessions, and 2,910 across two weeks. A 27,100 year-end figure is a slower tape than the one the 8-K just filed, unless SATA loses the $100 bid and the common ATM has to carry more of the raise at whatever price ASST then prints. The louder constraint is not whether Strive can find coins to buy. It is whether the preferred that funds them still trades like a $100 instrument while the common keeps behaving like a high-beta bitcoin residual.

If SATA holds the line, the next 8-K can look like this one. If it does not, fifth place on one table will be the last number anyone remembers from the week the company sold 3.58 million new common shares to help buy 1,800 bitcoin.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Strive’s disclosed bitcoin purchases, share issuance, and related market prices, and it is for information only. It does not constitute investment, trading, or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell ASST, SATA, bitcoin, or any other security or digital asset. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser or broker before acting on any figure or structure described here. Share counts, bitcoin holdings, prices, and analyst targets reflect the cited filings and market sources as of September 2, 2026, and those figures can change.