Strive Stacks 2,000 Bitcoin on a 13% Preferred Bet

Strive, Inc. bought 2,000 bitcoin for about $169 million at $84,422 a coin and lifted its stack to 29,462 BTC. Chairman and CEO Matt Cole said 61.5% of capital raised came from SATA, with warrant exercises adding $56.7 million. The same October 5 filing told investors to push amplification above 60% while bitcoin stays under $100,000, and it opened a $500 million SATA buyback with no cash earmarked for it.

Strive Paid $84,422 a Coin for 2,000 Bitcoin

The Dallas company purchased 2,000 bitcoin last week between September 28 and October 2, fees included, according to its Form 8-K. Holdings rose from 27,462 to 29,462. Cole posted the print the same morning the filing went out.

Strive acquired 2,000 $BTC for $169M at an average cost of $84,422 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿29,462.

61.5% of capital raised came from SATA, with warrants generating $56.7M.

Today’s 8-K also highlights key metrics and KPIs through 3Q26.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/HS4ADPQ8mJ

— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) October 5, 2026

Cash still climbed. Cash and cash equivalents went from $248.8 million on September 25 to $284.7 million on October 2, a $35.9 million rise after the coins were paid for. That is why Cole later stressed that $169 million is the bitcoin ticket, not the week’s full capital raise.

THE WEEK ON THE 8-K

Shares underlying traditional warrants fell by about 2.1 million as holders exercised, which matches the $56.7 million Cole tied to warrants. Class A common rose by 3,255,119 to 91,708,804. Effective common shares reached 100,938,986. The company still reports no debt principal and says it intends to remain debt-free. The 2,000-coin lot is its largest weekly buy since a 2,500-bitcoin purchase in early June.

The Preferred That Pays $13 a Year

SATA is Strive’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock on Nasdaq, built to trade near a $100 stated amount. The board can move the coupon to hold that band. The current 13.00% stated dividend rate works out to $13 a year on par, paid each business day since June 16, 2026, at about $0.0516 a share when the board keeps declaring it.

HOW SATA FUNDS THE COINS

• Par window: Management targets a $99 to $101 trading range and says it does not mean to issue new SATA below $100 through the at-the-market program.
• This week’s print: SATA shares outstanding rose by 1,304,902, about $130.5 million of new par at the $100 stated amount.
• Senior claim, no lien: Holders rank above common stock on dividends and in a liquidation, but the bitcoin is not pledged to them.
• Call price: Strive can redeem SATA at $110 plus accrued dividends, which caps how far the paper can run above par.
• Rate path: The coupon launched at 12.00% on November 5, 2025, when the deal priced at $80 a share, and the board had lifted it to 13.00% by April 15, 2026.

Cole put SATA at 61.5% of capital raised in the latest week, after putting it at 85% of the prior week’s raise, when warrants added only $12.4 million. The preferred check got bigger. The warrant check got bigger too, and still lagged the preferred. Warrant holders did not rush this far above a long-standing $27-style exercise, and cash still rose, so the company is not short of dry powder either way.

True North, a Strive research unit, describes an 18-month dividend reserve of about 12 months in cash and six months in Strategy’s STRC preferred, which Strive still holds at 505,000 shares. That reserve sits on Strive’s own books. It is not a segregated trust for SATA holders.

Cole Says No Cash Is Allocated

The 8-K’s sleeper line is not the 2,000 coins. It is a repurchase facility of up to $500 million for SATA, which management may use from time to time if it decides a buyback serves long-term holders. None of the prior four weekly bitcoin filings mentioned it. The ceiling is larger than the $284.7 million cash balance dated October 2.

Cole closed the obvious reading the same afternoon. No funds are allocated to repurchases, he wrote. If Strive did buy SATA, the money could come from the balance sheet, from future share issuance, or both. The maximum optionality is intentional, he said, because repurchase programs take time to put in place.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The cap: The facility allows up to $500 million of SATA repurchases at management’s discretion.
• The cash: October 2 cash was $284.7 million, so a full-size buyback would need more than that dated balance.
• The point: Retiring preferred shares would cut future coupons; spending the cash would leave less for the next bitcoin ticket.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Any spend: The filing discloses no completed SATA repurchases, no dedicated funding source, and no timetable.
• The mix: Cole has not said how much, if any, of a future buyback would come from new common or preferred issuance rather than cash.

Used hard, the facility is a way to shrink a 13% perpetual coupon. Left idle, it is a signal that Strive can support the $100 peg from the bid side if the ATM ever loses the par window that makes new SATA cheap to print.

How Strive Measures Bitcoin Yield

As of September 30, a day before the last coins in this batch landed, Strive held 28,000 bitcoin acquired at an average $90,170. Fair value on that date was $2.340 billion at a $83,577 bitcoin price, so the stack sat under its blended cost. Add $284.7 million of cash and $50.2 million of STRC and the treasury printed at $2.675 billion. SATA’s stated amount was $1.294 billion, with an annualized obligation of $168.2 million.

Amplification, preferred (and any debt) against the value of the bitcoin, was 55.3%. Bitcoin per assumed diluted share was 27,801 sats. In the third quarter the company acquired 8,137 bitcoin at $78,885. This week’s $84,422 print is under the lifetime average and over the quarter’s.

The Company believes Bitcoin is attractively priced at current levels. While Bitcoin remains below $100,000, management’s current objective is to increase and maintain the Company’s Amplification Ratio above 60%. The Company intends to remain debt-free.

Strive, Inc., Form 8-K, October 5, 2026

Bitcoin Yield in Strive’s usage is the percentage change in bitcoin per share over a period, not income the coins pay. The 8-K puts that figure at 18.5% quarter to date, 63.2% for the fiscal year, and 99.4% over the last twelve months. The company says those metrics are not financial performance, valuation, or liquidity measures, and that they ignore the senior claim SATA has on the same assets.

Cole’s own September 30 scorecard, posted after the filing, put ASST total return at 99% fiscal year to date, outperformance versus bitcoin at 104%, amplification at 55%, and bitcoin dollar gain at $650 million. The common stock is the residual claim on a stack that is already more than half matched by preferred par.

6,115 Coins Separate Strive From MARA

On True North’s October 5 public-company tracker, Strive is fifth among public bitcoin treasuries after the 2,000-coin add, at 0.1403% of the 21 million supply, with a $3.05 billion market cap.

PUBLIC BTC TREASURIES, OCTOBER 5

MARA is 6,115 bitcoin ahead. Strategy added 334 bitcoin for $28.7 million in its latest weekly print, a clip Strive outbought six times over, and still holds 848,000. That is about 29 times Strive’s stack. Beating Saylor on a single week is a pace story. It is not a size story. Bullish, which Strive has already passed, sits at 21,580.

Investor relations describes Strive as the first publicly traded asset-management Bitcoin treasury corporation after a September 2025 merger, with Strive Asset Management running almost $3 billion in AUM. Vivek Ramaswamy founded the firm in 2022 and remains a significant shareholder. He is no longer an officer or director. Cole runs the treasury from Dallas. The company also absorbed Semler Scientific, a medical-device issuer that had already been stacking bitcoin, which is how a 2025 listing turned into a top-five public holder in under a year.

Who Pays If Bitcoin Falls Hard?

Common holders own the amplification. Preferred holders own the coupon. If bitcoin rallies while SATA stays near $100, new preferred dollars buy more coins per ASST share and the 55.3% ratio can march toward 60% without a bank loan. If bitcoin falls, the $168.2 million annualized obligation does not fall with it, dividends are cumulative and can compound toward a 20% cap if unpaid, and SATA still sits above the common in a liquidation even though the coins are unencumbered.

That is the mixed core of the wager. The 8-K itself warns that bitcoin-per-share metrics do not capture the extra senior claims created when preferred issuance funds the purchases. Cole is still willing to add leverage while the coin is under $100,000. He is also building a switch that can retire some of that preferred if the coupon starts to crowd out the next buy.

Strategy’s Michael Saylor, whose STRC preferred pays 12% on a much larger stack, replied to Cole in two words.

Well stacked, Matt.

Michael Saylor, Strategy founder and chairman, on X

After the Filing, SATA Kept Clearing at Par

The ATM did not take the day off. Trackers of the preferred tape still saw SATA trading through $100 on October 5, with fresh at-the-market size into the close, a 33rd straight session of issuance in those tallies. Cole’s follow-up was shorter than the 8-K: big week, but we all need more.

On October 6 he came back to the arithmetic. Look at the change in cash, he wrote, and at the estimated daily dividends for the week, for a fuller picture of what the company discloses every Monday. The $169 million is the coins. The machine that paid for them is still on, still clearing at par, and still one board vote from either levering past 60% or buying its own preferred back.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Strive’s public filings and 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, and it is not a recommendation of any treasury or preferred-stock strategy. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser or other qualified professional who can review their own objectives, tax position, and risk tolerance before acting. Share counts, bitcoin holdings, cash balances, dividend rates, and market prices are taken from the cited 8-K, company posts, and tracker pages as of those sources’ dates and can change with the next filing or trading session.