Strive Buys 1,800 Bitcoin (BTC) for $143M, Becomes Fifth-Largest Holder

Strive Adds 1,800 BTC

Asset manager Strive deployed roughly $143 million into 1,800 Bitcoin (BTC) between Aug. 24 and Aug. 28, cash it raised by selling new shares through two at-the-market equity programs rather than drawing down existing reserves. An 8-K filing submitted to the SEC on Aug. 31 shows the company paid an average of $79,431 per coin, fees and expenses included, lifting its treasury from 21,356 BTC to 23,156 BTC in one reporting week. At the filing's reference price near $76,400, the stack was worth about $1.77 billion. The balance moved Strive past crypto exchange Bullish, which holds 22,000 BTC, into fifth place among publicly traded corporate holders — behind Strategy, Twenty One Capital, Metaplanet and MARA Holdings — per BitcoinTreasuries.net rankings. Chief executive Matt Cole confirmed the purchase in an Aug. 31 post on X. The buy deepens a strategic Bitcoin reserve build-out that has now added 2,910 BTC for roughly $224.5 million across two consecutive weekly filings, with the average cost per coin rising week over week as the asset traded through the upper-$70,000 range.

Strategy Ends a Two-Month Pause

The largest corporate Bitcoin whale is buying again. Strategy, Michael Saylor's treasury vehicle, announced on Monday that it purchased 4,603 BTC for roughly $370 million over the past week — its first acquisition since June, closing out roughly two months in which it accumulated cash instead of coins. On-chain data shared with the announcement put the average entry at about $80,318 per coin, taking total holdings to 845,050 BTC after four separate sales since May. Buying back near $80,000 after selling lower has reignited debate among traders over the company's execution, with critics contrasting the timing against a simple hodl approach. Alongside the purchase, the Monday update disclosed a $29 million addition to cash reserves and the repurchase of about $152 million of STRC, its perpetual preferred stock. Management framed the sequencing as balance-sheet repair: the dollar reserve now stands near $5.10 billion with $1.61 billion in cash, U.S. dollar duration extends to 4.0 years, and STRC's Bitcoin credit tightened to 56 basis points.

Share Sales Carry the Obligations

The buying was financed the same way all month: new issuance. Strive's Class A share count rose by 3.58 million during the week to 83.47 million, while SATA preferred shares climbed by 803,099 to 9.07 million — a security carrying a $100 liquidation preference that implies about $907.4 million in aggregate obligations and a 13% annualized dividend, paid in cash every business day since June. Despite the $143 million outlay, cash and equivalents rose $11.6 million to $183.5 million, and the company's 505,000 STRC shares, held as a reserve against preferred dividends, gained $581,000 in fair value to $49.15 million. In June, management added $2.1 billion of capacity to each program, creating up to $4.2 billion of potential fundraising. Markets rewarded the pace: ASST closed the session up 6.5% near $23.16, roughly a 95% gain for August, and Saturn Credit adviser Adam Livingston noted the latest filing lifted Bitcoin holdings about 8.4% in five business days. The accumulation has tracked a broader rebound that began Aug. 19, when the U.S. Treasury's plan to double certain long-term bond buybacks pushed yields lower and helped the Bitcoin treasury sector rally — the asset itself surged more than 23% to a high above $81,000, a backdrop in which peers stay active too, including Metaplanet's 2,400 BTC transfer into Coinbase Prime custody. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bybit.

$80,400 Resistance in Focus

The climb to fifth also clarifies the ladder Strive now sits on: per BitcoinTreasuries.net, Strategy leads with more than 845,000 BTC, followed by MARA Holdings at roughly 41,600, Metaplanet at about 39,000 and Bullish at around 23,800 — a top five that now spans an asset manager, exchanges and miners rather than a single dominant treasury player. The acceleration is recent: in the prior week (Aug. 17–23) Strive bought 1,110 BTC for about $81.5 million at an average of $73,409, before stepping up to 1,800 coins the following week. The company converted from an asset manager into a Bitcoin treasury vehicle after merging with Asset Entities in 2025, financing buys through Bitcoin-collateralized preferred stock. That route wobbled in June 2026, when STRC and SATA sold off sharply and Cole publicly attributed the drop to leveraged liquidations rather than credit deterioration — context that makes the current accelerated accumulation a bid to show the strategy remains on track.

New details from the same filing round out the picture: Strive's year-to-date Bitcoin yield — a metric comparing growth in BTC holdings relative to share count — reached 40.8% as of Aug. 28, up from less than 37% in early June, and ASST traded 9% higher by midday in New York, up nearly 40% for the year. The company, founded by former Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in 2025 after a $750 million raise, completed an all-stock acquisition of Semler Scientific in January 2026, the first takeover of one public Bitcoin treasury by another. Cole has stressed the balance sheet carries no bonds, credit lines or encumbered Bitcoin, leaving no margin requirements that could force liquidations in a downturn.

The week's buying spree extended beyond Bitcoin treasuries, with BitMine adding 53,501 ether in its 65th consecutive weekly purchase, a streak dating back to June 2025. The firm has staked 5,067,309 ETH — 86% of its pile — through its MAVAN validator network, a yield engine chairman Tom Lee projects will generate $335 million to $390 million a year. BitMine now controls 4.9% of ether supply, 133,888 tokens shy of Lee's 5% target. The renewed accumulation follows a sharp turn in fund flows: US spot bitcoin ETFs absorbed more than $3.3 billion in August per SoSoValue, a reversal from June's $4.5 billion in outflows, while ether funds added roughly $1.75 billion. Crypto funds overall drew $3.2 billion last week, their largest weekly intake since October 2025, per Bank of America data. What halts these buyers, analysts note, is not a falling coin price but a closed financing window.

(as of 23:03 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $80,427 resistance at 92/100, on confluence of the ATR Upper band, the R3 pivot, the Fibonacci 0.000 level and the Donchian Upper band — the ceiling Bitcoin must clear to extend the uptrend. Nearest support sits at $78,027, scored 84/100 (Fibonacci 0.114, low-volume node, Ichimoku Tenkan, MACD cross), with a stronger floor at $74,255 rated 87/100 on the EMA 20, Ichimoku Kijun, Supertrend and the S2 pivot. Spot trades at $78,405, up 0.09% over 24 hours, with RSI at 71.5 signaling stretched momentum inside an uptrend. Derivatives positioning looks constructive but not euphoric: funding at 0.0045%, open interest near $15.5 billion and a 1.04 long/short account ratio (51.0% long / 48.9% short), while the Fear & Greed Index reads 62 (Greed). A daily close above $80,427 opens the Fibonacci band toward $85,888 (43/100); losing $78,027 would test the stronger $74,255 floor and risk invalidating the bullish structure.