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Strategy repurchases at 29 percent above the price its liquidity sales fetched
Strive's 1,800 coins and Strategy's 4,603 put balance-sheet demand back on the tape, though the pioneer still holds 2,313 fewer bitcoin than it did in June and the newer bid is funded by a preferred paying 13 percent.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Strive bought 1,800 bitcoin for about $143 million between August 24 and 28 at an average of $79,431 a coin including fees, taking its holdings from 21,356 to 23,156.
- That moved it past Bullish's 22,000 coins into fifth place among listed corporate holders, still behind MARA Holdings at 35,577 and far behind Strategy at 845,050.
- Strategy ended a ten-week pause by acquiring 4,603 bitcoin for roughly $369.7 million, its first purchase since June.
- Bitcoin traded around $78,600 on Monday and was set to finish August up more than 24 percent, its best month since 2017.
- TD Cowen now expects Strive to buy about 4,300 bitcoin in the third quarter, more than 180 percent above its earlier estimate of 1,500.
Why it matters
- constraint With 1.264 million coins held across 198 public companies, the top five holding 78.4 percent and Strategy alone 66.9 percent, aggregate corporate demand is hostage to four or five balance sheets with live access to equity markets.
- cost The operating business Strive acquired with Semler booked $2.94 million of quarterly revenue, about 16 percent of the annual dividend on a single week's preferred-funded bitcoin, so the coupon is serviced by issuing more paper rather than by trading profits.
- contradiction Cointelegraph dates the rebound to the Treasury's August 19 plan to double certain long-bond buybacks, while Cryptopolitan cites Reuters on a softer dollar and debasement fear, and whether this is a rates trade or a currency thesis decides how durable the corporate bid is.
- exposure Bullish has not traded a coin since selling 1,700 at the end of June, which means the sector's shakeout and its recovery are running in the same week depending on which balance sheet you count.
Strive funds most of this buying through SATA, a variable-rate perpetual preferred that pays a 13 percent annualized dividend every business day and does its work when it trades near its $100 par, a structure chief executive Matt Cole has described as a first for a US-listed security [20]. Carry it through: to the extent preferred money paid for the $143 million just deployed, the annual service cost is about $18.6 million [38], which means bitcoin has to compound above 13 percent in perpetuity before the common shareholder keeps much beyond option value. Cole's framing is that the balance sheet is debt-free, with no margin requirements and no encumbered bitcoin [21], and that is true as far as it goes, though a perpetual claim paying daily sits ahead of the common all the same. Some weeks the spread is generous. In the week to August 28 the dollar value of Strive's bitcoin rose 8.4 percent against roughly 4.0 percent growth in effective common shares, leaving about 4.3 percent more bitcoin behind each share [13]; the company puts its year-to-date bitcoin yield at 40.8 percent [14]; and in the prior week the at-the-market machine funded 1,110 coins for $81.5 million [6] and still lifted cash to $171.9 million on a $17.1 million gain from those same sales [22].
Strategy's re-entry is a different animal, or rather the more interesting version of the same one. Between June 30 and August 10 it sold 6,916 coins for about $430 million to shore up liquidity [9], an average near $62,175 apiece [25]; last week it bought 4,603 back at an average of $80,318 [5], about 29 percent more per coin [26]. Net of the round trip it holds 2,313 fewer bitcoin than it did on June 30 [29] and roughly $60.3 million more cash [30]. The $369.7 million is the gross print [4], not the delta.
This is probably wrong, but the treasury trade looks repriced rather than finished: the marginal bid has passed from a pioneer managing its cash position to a smaller issuer paying an explicit 13 percent, and explicit costs behave worse in a drawdown than implicit ones. The counter-thesis is inside Strive's own filings, where a 40.8 percent yield against a 13 percent coupon [14][20] is a wide spread for as long as it holds, and last week's two firms between them disclosed $512.7 million of buying [34]. The blended cost of Strive's last 2,910 coins is about $77,133 [27] against roughly $78,600 on Monday [10], which is a 1.9 percent cushion, and the $257.6 million second-quarter loss, 94 percent of it marks rather than operations [36], is already about 14.6 percent of the current stash value [28]. Two things would prove me wrong. Strive buying at this pace while ASST trades below the premium that makes at-the-market issuance accretive (it rose about 6 percent to $23 on Monday and is up almost 165 percent over six months [19]) would show the funding is not premium-dependent. Strategy's next filings taking it past 847,363 coins [35] would show the pause was a view on price rather than a liquidity trade.
What to watch
- Whether SATA keeps trading near its $100 par, the condition Strive's own filings tie most of its buying to.
- Whether the 193 public holders outside the top five start selling into strength, offsetting the concentrated bid.
- Whether Bitmine's return to Ethereum buying widens the balance-sheet bid beyond bitcoin.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence70
- Adoption55
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives65
- Confidence70
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers- Builder
- Builder 5%
- Operator
- Operator 27%
- Investor
- Investor 68%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Strive bought 1,800 BTC for approximately $143 million between August 24 and August 28 at an average price of $79,431 per coin including fees and expenses, confirmed by CEO Matt Cole on Monday and disclosed in a Form 8-K.
- [2]
The purchase lifted Strive's holdings from 21,356 BTC a week earlier to 23,156 BTC.
- [3]
Strive passed Bullish, which held 22,000 BTC, to become the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate bitcoin holder; both rank behind MARA Holdings at 35,577 BTC and far behind Strategy at 845,050 BTC.
- [4]
Strategy resumed buying with 4,603 BTC worth approximately $369.7 million, its first purchase in 10 weeks, bringing holdings to 845,050 BTC.
- [5]
Strategy paid an average price of $80,318 per bitcoin on the 4,603-coin purchase announced Monday.
- [6]
Strive purchased 1,110 BTC the previous week for roughly $81.5 million at an average price of $73,409 per coin.
- [7]
Strategy's purchase lifted its holdings back above 845,000 BTC following four bitcoin sales since May.
- [8]
At the reference price cited in the disclosure, Strive's 23,156 BTC is worth roughly $1.76 billion.
- [9]
Between June 30 and August 10, Strategy sold 6,916 BTC for approximately $430 million to help enhance its liquidity position.
- [10]
Bitcoin traded around $78,600 on Monday, on track to close August with a gain of more than 24 percent, its strongest month since 2017.
- [11]
On August 25 bitcoin exceeded $80,000 for the first time since mid-May, aided by a softer US dollar and increasing debasement fears, according to a Reuters report.
ReportedSupportedSource: Reuters, as reported by Cryptopolitan2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [12]
The recovery in bitcoin and wider digital assets began on August 19, when the US Treasury announced plans to double the size of certain long-term bond buybacks, helping push Treasury yields lower and fuelling a rebound in risk assets, with bitcoin rallying more than 23 percent to a recent high above $81,000.
ReportedSupportedSource: Cointelegraph2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [13]
Between August 21 and 28 the value of bitcoin held by Strive increased 8.4 percent while effective common shares increased about 4.0 percent, so bitcoin held per effective common share rose approximately 4.3 percent.
- [14]
As of August 28, Strive's year-to-date bitcoin yield stood at 40.8 percent.
- [15]
Tom Lee's Bitmine made its largest Ethereum purchase since June.
- [16]
Publicly traded firms hold approximately 1.264 million bitcoin across 198 companies according to Bitcoin Treasuries, with the top five listed companies holding about 78.4 percent of that total.
- [17]
TD Cowen raised its price target on Strive's stock from $28 to $32 while maintaining its buy recommendation.
- [18]
TD Cowen expects Strive to purchase approximately 4,300 BTC in the third quarter, more than 180 percent above its earlier projection of 1,500 BTC.
- [19]
ASST stock rose about 6 percent to around $23 on Monday morning and is up almost 165 percent over the last six months, according to The Block.
- [20]
Strive taps equity issuance of common stock (ASST) and preferred stock (SATA); SATA powers most of the firm's buying when it trades near its $100 par value, and the variable-rate perpetual preferred pays a 13 percent annualized dividend every business day, a design CEO Matt Cole touted as a first for a US-listed security.
- [21]
Cole has framed Strive's balance sheet as built for volatility, telling investors the company stands debt-free with no margin requirements and no encumbered bitcoin.
- [22]
Strive's cash rose to $171.9 million following a $17.1 million gain on at-the-market sales of its common and preferred stock over the August 17 to 21 period.
- [23]
Bullish's most recent bitcoin transaction before Strive overtook it was a 1,700 token sale at the end of June; the exchange operator, led by former NYSE president Tom Farley, became a public bitcoin treasury firm after raising $1.1 billion in its August 2025 IPO.
- [24]
The medical device sales business Strive took over with the Semler deal posted close to 100 percent year-on-year revenue growth to $2.94 million.
- [25]
Strategy's June 30 to August 10 sales realised an average of roughly $62,175 per bitcoin.
- [26]
Strategy's repurchase average of $80,318 is about 29 percent above the roughly $62,175 average it realised on the sales.
- [27]
Across the 1,110 coins bought at $73,409 and the 1,800 bought at $79,431, Strive's blended cost on its last 2,910 coins is about $77,133, roughly 1.9 percent below Monday's $78,600 price.
- [28]
Strive's $257.6 million second-quarter loss equals about 14.6 percent of the current $1.76 billion value of its bitcoin.
- [29]
Netting the sales against the repurchase, Strategy holds 2,313 fewer bitcoin than it did on June 30.
- [30]
The same round trip left Strategy with roughly $60.3 million more cash than the repurchase consumed.
- [31]
Strategy alone accounts for about 66.9 percent of all bitcoin held by public companies.
- [32]
The 193 public companies outside the top five hold about 273,000 bitcoin between them, averaging roughly 1,415 coins each.
- [33]
TD Cowen's $32 target implies about 39 percent upside from Monday's $23 share price.
- [34]
Strategy and Strive between them disclosed about $512.7 million of bitcoin buying in the week.
- [35]
Strategy's June 30 position implied by its subsequent sales and repurchase is 847,363 coins.
- [36]
Strive posted a $257.6 million net loss for the quarter ended June 30, disclosed on August 10, with roughly 94 percent of it attributed to the declining fair-market value of its bitcoin and its stake in Strategy's preferred stock rather than operations.
- [37]
Strive entered the corporate bitcoin leaderboard through a September 2025 merger with Asset Entities and expanded with an all-stock deal for Semler Scientific in January 2026.
- [38]
A 13 percent annualized dividend on $143 million of preferred funding costs about $18.6 million a year to service.
- [39]
The Semler medical device unit's $2.94 million of quarterly revenue is about 16 percent of the $18.6 million annual dividend cost on one week's preferred-funded bitcoin purchase.
Sources
3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cointelegraph.comStrive buys 1,800 Bitcoin for $143M, becomes fifth-biggest corporate holder
1 article · August 31, 2026
- cryptopolitan.comStrive overtakes Bullish after 1,800 BTC acquisition week
2 articles · August 31, 2026
- decrypt.coStrive Adds $143 Million in Bitcoin as Treasury Firms Pile Back In
1 article · August 31, 2026
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