Strive chief executive Matt Cole says bitcoin could reach $500,000 to $1 million around 2030, and his company is buying like he means it. Strive held 23,156 BTC as of late August, the fifth-largest treasury among publicly traded companies, and Cole has hinted the firm could push past 27,000 coins before the year ends.
Cole laid out the case on the One Share podcast this month. He called the $250,000 forecasts now circulating in the bull market overly conservative and described bitcoin as the asset with the strongest momentum in financial markets. Expanding demand from individuals and institutions, in his view, will keep driving gains through the end of the decade. He also pointed to structural demand for scarce assets amid persistent inflation as the backdrop for what he called potentially bitcoin’s strongest cycle to date.
The buying record backs up the talk. Strive bought 136 BTC in July while bitcoin traded in the low $62,000 range, then accelerated hard: 3,156 coins in August alone. A Form 8-K filed with the SEC showed 1,800 bitcoin purchased between August 24 and August 28 for roughly $143 million, an average of $79,431 per coin including fees. That lifted holdings from 21,356 to 23,156 BTC and moved Strive ahead of crypto exchange Bullish into fifth place among listed companies. The week before, Strive had paid an average of $73,409 for 1,110 coins, so the average cost per coin climbed as the pace picked up.
Funded by equity, not debt
The purchase was carried by share issuance rather than borrowing. In the window of the August buy, Strive issued 3,579,147 Class A shares and 803,099 SATA preferred shares, and cash still ended $11.6 million higher at $183.5 million. The company has avoided convertible-bond funding entirely and has issued more than $700 million in warrants instead.
Preferred stock is where the pace changed. The prior week added 441,313 SATA shares against 3,646,300 Class A shares, so common issuance held steady while preferred issuance climbed by more than 360,000 shares. Strive names the cost in its own risk factors: dilution caused by the issuance of additional Class A common stock or SATA stock.
Those warrants are now the swing factor. They carry a $27 exercise price and expire in mid-October. Strive shares hit a year-to-date high of $26.84 this month, less than 1 percent below the threshold. Cole said he would prefer to see the warrants exercised rather than lapse, which would give the company roughly $700 million for bitcoin purchases and another $700 million of capacity for digital credit products, as much as $1.4 billion in total.
“Strive acquired an additional 1,800 BTC for $143M at an average cost of $79,431 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to 23,156,” Cole posted on X when the August buy closed.
The gap to second place
Cole said Strive could become the world’s second-largest public bitcoin holder by the end of 2026, though he was careful to frame that as possible rather than a base case. The math is steep. Twenty One Capital, currently second, holds 43,514 BTC and has not added coins since July 2025. Closing that gap would require Strive to add roughly 20,400 BTC over 17 weeks, about 1,200 coins a week.
Cole said averaging 1,000 BTC in weekly purchases would itself represent a substantial pace and could move Strive up the rankings quickly, but he cautioned that such a rate may or may not materialize. He also said the second-place scenario would only be possible if several favorable conditions overlap, starting with the warrant window.
| Holder | BTC held | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Strive (ASST) | 23,156 | Fifth among public companies, added 3,156 BTC in August |
| Twenty One Capital | 43,514 | Second place, no purchases since July 2025 |
| Strive warrants | $700M+ | $27 strike, mid-October expiry, could unlock $1.4B |
The risks are real
The strategy concentrates risk in a single asset. If bitcoin falls sharply, Strive holds a depreciating treasury while still owing preferred dividends on SATA stock. The company’s own filings name dilution as a standing concern, and the same instruments funding the treasury keep expanding the share count. Class A shares outstanding rose to 83,470,035 from 79,890,888 in the August window, and effective common shares climbed to 93,262,570 from 89,683,423.
There is also execution risk in the warrant window. If ASST trades below $27 through mid-October, the $1.4 billion of potential capacity Cole described disappears, and the path to fourth or third place narrows with it.
By Strive’s own accounting, ASST has beaten the average 2026 performance of the ten biggest listed corporate bitcoin holders by 82 percent. Whether that keeps up through a hawkish Fed meeting this week is another question. The Federal Reserve meets September 15-16 with markets pricing a meaningful chance of a rate hike, and bitcoin has spent recent sessions below $80,000 while ETF flows stayed negative.
For now the accumulation continues. A further purchase of more than 1,100 BTC was announced ahead of September 8, funded through SATA preferred sales. Strive also holds 505,000 shares of Strategy Inc.’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, a position worth about $49.15 million at the end of August. From roughly 5,000 BTC to 23,156 in under a year, the firm has made one of the largest concentrated bets on bitcoin in corporate history, and the next six weeks will show whether the warrant bet pays for it.