Strive buys Strategy stocks, and Bitcoin Treasury Company begins to intertwine with each other.

Author: Curry, Deep Tide TechFlow

On March 11, a company called Strive announced a few things.

They increased their Bitcoin holdings by 179 coins, bringing the total to 13,311 coins, worth about $930 million. Their preferred stock SATA’s dividend rate was raised to 12.75%. Additionally, they spent $50 million to buy preferred stock STRC of Strategy.

$50 million, more than one-third of Strive’s corporate treasury.

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

This story is about: a Bitcoin-holding company using more than a third of its money to buy stock issued by another Bitcoin-holding company.

Strive’s Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton tweeted that STRC is a “high-quality credit product, with good liquidity, and a risk-return profile better than traditional fixed income.” Translation: We think this is more attractive than government bonds.

He also did some math: if they used that $50 million to buy U.S. Treasuries, the annual interest would be a few million dollars. Buying STRC, the annualized return could be an extra $3.9 million.

Sounds pretty profitable.

But think carefully: where did Strive’s money to buy STRC come from?

Strategy issues STRC to raise funds, and the money is used to buy Bitcoin. STRC can pay interest, but only if Strategy’s Bitcoin doesn’t drop too much.

So, the underlying logic of Strive’s investment is: the Bitcoin I hold will go up, the Bitcoin Strategy holds will also go up, and they can only pay me interest if their Bitcoin doesn’t fall too hard. I then use that interest to buy more Bitcoin.

This isn’t diversification; it’s a nested structure.

In case you don’t know about Strive

Many know Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), but few know about Strive.

But now, this company holds 13,311 Bitcoin, worth about $930 million, just surpassing Tesla’s holdings, ranking around the tenth largest publicly listed company in the world.

Strive’s founder is Vivek Ramaswamy, a second-generation Indian immigrant, Harvard undergrad, Yale Law School. In 2022, he and a high school friend founded Strive in Ohio, focusing on asset management and ETF funds.

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

In just a year and a half, the fund’s assets under management exceeded $1 billion. But Vivek didn’t stay long—he resigned early 2023 to run for U.S. President. He didn’t win the Republican primary against Trump, and this year he’s running for Ohio governor. Interestingly, Trump and Musk have endorsed him…

After Vivek left, the CEO became Matt Cole, who previously managed $70 billion at California’s public pension fund, coming from traditional finance. But last year, he made a somewhat unconventional decision.

In September 2025, Cole announced that Strive would transform from a fund company into a “Bitcoin treasury company.” They spent $675 million to buy over 5,800 Bitcoin at an average price of $116,000 each. That same month, they announced acquiring another public company, Semler Scientific, and after the merger, their Bitcoin holdings exceeded 10,000 coins.

Half a year later, holdings grew to 13,311 coins.

A fund founded in 2022, in just three years, became one of the top ten corporate Bitcoin holders globally. The speed is astonishing, prompting a question:

Where did they get the money to buy all these Bitcoins?

Nested structures issuing stocks

Where does Strive’s money to buy Bitcoin come from? It’s raised by issuing stock.

Last November, Strive issued a preferred stock called SATA. Investors buy it, and Strive pays quarterly interest, currently at an annual rate of 12.75%. The funds raised are used to buy Bitcoin.

This isn’t Strive’s invention. The concept was pioneered by Michael Saylor.

Saylor’s company Strategy owns over 730,000 Bitcoin, making it the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder. Last year, Strategy launched a similar product called STRC, where investors buy in, and Strategy pays interest, currently at an annual rate of 11.5%. The raised funds are also used to buy Bitcoin.

Up to this point, the two companies operated independently, with similar logic, unrelated.

But on March 11, this transaction connected the two lines. Strive used $50 million to buy STRC.

The chain now looks like this:

Strategy issues STRC to raise money to buy Bitcoin, Strive buys STRC to earn interest, and Strive issues its own SATA to raise funds to buy more Bitcoin and STRC.

Layer upon layer, each paying double-digit interest, with the underlying security being that Bitcoin cannot fall sharply.

When Bitcoin rises, everyone profits. When Bitcoin falls, everyone’s interest payments are at risk, but no layer can independently stop losses because your assets are someone else’s liabilities.

Three-layered products, three layers of interest, three groups of investors. The underlying asset is Bitcoin, which cannot drop significantly.

Meanwhile, Strive’s own stock, ASST, recently hit a 52-week high of $268 but is now below $9, a 97% drop. On the day they announced buying STRC (March 11), the stock only rose 5.52%.

At the end of October last year, ASST fell below $0.80, nearly half of its net asset value based on Bitcoin holdings.

So, the picture is this: a company holding $930 million worth of Bitcoin has a market cap of just over $500 million. Its stock price has fallen 97% from its high. Yet, management keeps adding—buying more Bitcoin, buying STRC, and increasing the interest on SATA.

However, Strategy’s own stock, MSTR, has been falling for eight months straight. Bitcoin has also retraced significantly from last year’s high.

But everyone on this chain keeps adding more.

In the first two months of this year, Strategy bought an additional 66,000 Bitcoin—more than in any previous full year. While increasing Bitcoin holdings, Strive also spent $50 million on STRC. SATA’s dividend rate has increased from 10% at listing to 12.75%. STRC’s dividend rate also rose from 10% to 11.5%.

As interest rates climb, it becomes harder for investors to stay, so they have to pay more.

Data shows that over 200 publicly listed companies worldwide have now adopted a “Bitcoin treasury strategy.” Before 2025, this number was less than 30.

Saylor invented a new way, and 200 companies are copying him. Now, they are buying each other’s issued products.

When everyone’s bets are on the same table, the line between “structured finance” and “massive concentrated gambling” might just be a matter of a few arrows on a PPT slide.