Most companies measure success in dollars. Strive's annual report says it measures itself against something else: it has "adopted bitcoin as our hurdle rate for capital deployment." In plain terms, every decision gets judged by whether it beats simply holding bitcoin.
That is an unusual sentence to find in a 10-K. It is also a good summary of a wave of companies that, after Strategy, rebuilt themselves around a bitcoin treasury. Strive is one of the most closely documented examples, because it reports its holdings to the SEC almost every week.
Its 8-K filed October 5, 2026 reports 29,462 bitcoin as of October 2, 2026. Twelve months earlier, it had only just become a public company.
From Asset Manager to Public Treasury Company
According to its 10-K for fiscal 2025, Strive Enterprises completed a reverse acquisition of a listed company, Asset Entities Inc., on September 12, 2025. That route put Strive on the stock market under the ticker ASST, and it "began deploying capital to execute on its bitcoin treasury strategy." The filing calls Strive "the first U.S. publicly traded bitcoin treasury asset management firm."
The company still runs an asset management business, which it reported at over $2.4 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025. Its chief executive and chairman is Matthew Cole, who signed both the 10-K and the June 2026 10-Q.
By year end 2025, Strive held about 7,627 bitcoin, bought for an aggregate $863.0 million, or $113,153 per coin including fees, per the same 10-K. The 10-K also says the company had "not sold any bitcoin to date."
Buying a Company to Buy Its Bitcoin
Strive's filings describe two ways to add bitcoin. "Beta" means raising money and buying coins on the open market. "Alpha" means things like mergers that acquire bitcoin at what it believes is a discount to market value.
The headline alpha move was Semler Scientific, a listed medical technology company that had built its own bitcoin reserve. Strive's 8-K filed January 16, 2026 confirms the merger closed that day, with each Semler share converted into 21.05 Strive shares. The 10-K says the deal brought in about 5,048 bitcoin, along with Semler's QuantaFlo vascular testing business and $100.0 million of Semler convertible notes that Strive assumed and guaranteed. Days later, holders of $90.0 million of those notes exchanged them for SATA preferred shares, leaving $10.0 million outstanding as of January 27, 2026.
Analogy: Buying a company for its bitcoin is like buying a house because of the gold coins in the basement safe. If you pay with your own shares and the coins are worth more than the house cost you, it can be a bargain. But you also inherit the plumbing, the mortgage and the tenants.
SATA: The Preferred Stock Doing the Heavy Lifting
Strive's signature fundraising tool is a perpetual preferred stock called SATA. Investors receive a variable monthly dividend, set at 13.00 percent per year as of June 30, 2026, according to the 10-Q. The company sells SATA through an at-the-market program, raising money in small amounts on the exchange as demand allows.
The October 5, 2026 8-K gives a snapshot as of September 30, 2026. The company labels these figures preliminary and unaudited:
| Item (as of September 30, 2026) | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin held | 28,000 BTC |
| Average cost per bitcoin | $90,170 |
| Fair value of bitcoin held | $2.34 billion |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $284.7 million |
| SATA preferred stated amount | $1.29 billion |
| Debt principal | None reported |
| Annualized interest obligation, as labeled in the 8-K | $168.2 million |
| Bitcoin per assumed diluted share | 27,801 sats |
Two details stand out. First, the bitcoin price Strive used for that date was $83,577, below its average cost of $90,170, so the treasury was underwater on paper. Second, Strive also owns 505,000 shares of Strategy's STRC preferred stock, worth $50.2 million. One bitcoin treasury company is holding another's dividend paper. If sats per share is a new unit for you, the units card converts between sats and BTC.
How Strive Compares With Strategy
Strive uses many of the same tools and metrics as Strategy, including "BTC Yield", a company-defined measure of bitcoin per share growth. The differences are mostly about scale and structure.
| Strategy | Strive | |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin held (latest 8-K) | 848,000 (Oct 4, 2026) | 29,462 (Oct 2, 2026) |
| Main funding tools | Common stock, convertible notes, four preferred series | Common stock, SATA preferred, mergers |
| Operating business | Analytics software | Asset management, Semler's medical devices |
The full Strategy story is in Strategy (Formerly MicroStrategy).
The Risks the Filings Spell Out
A treasury company's math works when bitcoin rises faster than the cost of the capital used to buy it. When bitcoin falls, the costs stay. Strive's own disclosures point to the pressure points.
- Dividends are owed in dollars. A $168.2 million annualized obligation, with no debt principal reported, needs cash, new capital, or eventually bitcoin sales.
- Dilution. New common shares and warrants spread ownership. The 8-K lists about 23.2 million shares underlying traditional warrants as of October 2, 2026.
- Price below cost. As of September 30, 2026, Strive's coins were worth less than it paid on average.
- Accounting volatility. Fair value rules push every bitcoin swing into reported earnings, explained in Bitcoin Treasury Accounting, Explained Simply.
What This Means for You
- Treat "bitcoin per share" as the real scoreboard. Treasury companies report it because total holdings can grow while each shareholder's slice shrinks.
- Read the capital stack. Preferred stock, warrants and convertible notes all have claims that come before or alongside common shareholders.
- Mergers carry baggage. Acquired bitcoin arrives with an operating business, debt and integration risk.
- Always check the date. Every Strive figure here is as of September 30 or October 2, 2026, and the company files updates almost weekly.
A bitcoin treasury company is a leveraged opinion about bitcoin, wrapped in a corporate balance sheet.