Strive Paid for Fifth Place With New ASST and SATA Shares

Strive Inc. bought 1,800 bitcoin last week for $143 million and passed Bullish to become the fifth-largest public bitcoin treasury. The Dallas firm, founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, now holds 23,156 bitcoin, a stack it values at $1.769 billion.

Fifth is a ranking win that opened after a larger treasury lost its U.S. listing path, and Strategy still added more coins the same week than Strive bought.

1,800 Coins, Bought in Five Sessions

Strive purchased 1,800 bitcoin last week at an average of $79,431 a coin, fees included, according to an 8-K signed by Chief Executive Matt Cole on August 31. Holdings rose from 21,356 bitcoin as of August 21 to 23,156 as of August 28, an 8.4% jump in five sessions, and cash still climbed by $11.6 million to $183.5 million.

THE WEEK ON THE 8-K

• The coins: 1,800 bitcoin bought from August 24 through 28 for $143 million.
• The stack: 23,156 bitcoin at week’s end, up from 21,356.
• The cash: $183.5 million, plus 505,000 shares of Strategy’s STRC preferred marked at $49.2 million.
• The yield claim: bitcoin yield up 5.8% across the last two weeks, per the company.

It was Strive’s largest weekly buy since the week reported on June 2, when it added 2,500 bitcoin, and it followed a purchase of 1,110 bitcoin the week before at $73,409 a coin. Cole put the new total on X the morning the filing dropped, and the company account followed with a clip titled “Strive to five.”

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

ASST jumped more than 5% on Monday and has more than doubled over the past month. Two days later the coin itself was still trading under $78,000, which is the tell in this trade: the leaderboard moved, the spot market did not.

Fifth Place Opened When a Larger Rival Left

On August 20, ten days before Cole’s filing, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company agreed with Cantor Equity Partners I to terminate the business combination agreement that would have listed a 30,021-bitcoin vehicle. That stack is larger than Strive’s. It is also, for now, no longer on the numbered public board.

BSTR said bitcoin and listed treasury vehicles were under “significant pricing pressure,” and that those conditions limited convertibles and perpetual preferred stock, the same tools Strive is still using. The breakup leaves a $15 million cash bill, $10 million due by September 19 and $5 million by December 1. Dr. Adam Back, BSTR’s chief executive and co-founder, put the retreat in one line.

Despite current market conditions, we continue to see substantial demand for return on Bitcoin, and we have spent the last year building the capability to deliver it.

Adam Back, CEO and co-founder, BSTR, August 20 statement

THE 12 DAYS THAT MADE FIFTH

1. August 20, 2026: BSTR and Cantor Equity Partners I end the July 16, 2025 combination; the 30,021-bitcoin stack loses its path to a Nasdaq listing.
2. August 24 through 28, 2026: Strive buys 1,800 bitcoin and issues more common and SATA preferred into the same window.
3. August 31, 2026: Strive files the 8-K and bills the week as fifth; Strategy files its own buy the same morning.

Without that August 20 termination, a 30,021-coin public name would still sit between MARA Holdings and Strive. Fifth is a vacancy Strive filled, not a stack it overtook on raw coins.

The Public Leaderboard After the Filing

Set BSTR aside, and the public race as of the August 31 filings looks like a steep staircase. Strategy is in a different league. The next three names are bunched in the 35,000 to 43,500 range. Then there is a gap, and Strive has climbed into it.

PUBLIC BITCOIN STACKS AFTER AUGUST 31

Bullish, the crypto exchange that listed as BLSH, last broke out 19,990 bitcoin in its June 30 accounts. Some public boards still carry a higher Bullish figure from older or broader counts, and those boards are why “fifth” is a slogan as much as a census. Strive’s 23,156 coins clear the June 30 Bullish number by 3,166 coins. They do not clear MARA. The gap to fourth is 12,421 bitcoin.

How Strive Paid for 1,800 Bitcoin

The 8-K does not print a purchase-order for the coins, but it prints the paper that appeared in the same five days. Class A shares outstanding rose by 3,579,147 to 83,470,035. SATA preferred rose by 803,099 to 9,073,914. Class B was unchanged at 9,792,535. Cash rose even after the $143 million bitcoin ticket, which is what an at-the-market raise looks like when it works.

THE PAPER THAT SHOWED UP WITH THE COINS

• Class A common: 3,579,147 new shares, about a 4.5% increase from 79,890,888.
• SATA preferred: 803,099 new shares at a $100 par, on top of 8,270,815 already out.
• Cash leftover: $11.6 million added, taking the cash line to $183.5 million.
• STRC sleeve: 505,000 Strategy preferred shares, still the same count, marked up $581,000 to $49.2 million.

The company has said the coins were bought with proceeds from new ASST and SATA shares sold at the market. SATA is the preferred stock that funds the treasury, a variable-rate perpetual that the board has kept at a 13.00% annual rate, with August daily cash dividends of $0.0516 a share. Common holders got the ranking clip. Preferred holders got more paper at par and a coupon that just got heavier.

Strategy Bought More Bitcoin the Same Morning

Michael Saylor’s Strategy reported that it bought 4,603 bitcoin the same week for $369.7 million, at an average of $80,318, taking its holdings to 845,050. That weekly haul is 2.6 times Strive’s. Strategy’s stack is about 36 times Strive’s. Its cumulative spend is $63.73 billion, an average of $75,412 a coin.

Strive is copying the method, not the scale. It issues equity, buys bitcoin, files on Monday, and asks the stock to treat the new coins as accretive. Strategy did the same thing in the same window and still sits in a different postcode. Twenty One Capital at 43,514 and Metaplanet at 43,000 are the names that would have to stall for Strive’s fifth-place clip to become a climb toward the podium, and neither has shown any interest in stalling.

Cole has said the firm 4x’d its bitcoin holdings in a bear market and that the next cycle will be the strongest yet. The wager is that ATM paper bought at this week’s prices will look cheap if that call is right. If it is wrong, the company has more coins, more shares, and a preferred book that still has to be paid in dollars.

SATA’s Coupon Is Now $118 Million a Year

Nine million SATA shares at a $100 liquidation preference is a $907.4 million preferred book. At 13%, that book costs about $118 million a year. Cash of $183.5 million plus the $49.2 million STRC sleeve gives Strive $232.7 million of dry powder against that coupon, roughly 24 months of coverage if no more preferred is printed and no more cash is raised.

WHAT THE PREFERRED IS CARRYING

• The book: 9,073,914 SATA shares, $907.4 million at par.
• The rate: 13.00% a year, $0.0516 a share on each August business day.
• The cover: $232.7 million of cash and STRC, about two years of the coupon.
• The tape: SATA at $99.95 on Monday, a tick under the $100 par the ATM is built to hit.

That $99.95 print is the other scoreboard. Common stock can celebrate a fifth-place graphic while the preferred that funds the next 1,800 coins trades under the par value Strive wants to sell it at. BSTR said those amplification tools had stopped working for it. Strive still has a bid. The bid is not at a premium.

MARA still holds 12,421 more bitcoin, and Back’s 30,021 coins are still out there, just not in the numbered league Strive just entered. Cole’s clip called it fifth. The filing called it 1,800 coins, 3.6 million new common shares, and 803,099 new preferred shares. Those are the same week.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Strive’s August 31, 2026 filing and related company statements, and it is for information only. It is not investment advice, a solicitation to buy or sell ASST, SATA, bitcoin, or any other security or digital asset, and it is not a recommendation of any treasury strategy. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser or other qualified investment professional before making any decision tied to these securities or to bitcoin. Figures, rankings, and preferred terms reflect the cited company filings and statements as of September 2, 2026 and will change as new 8-Ks, account statements, and market prices are published.