Strive Adds $109M in Bitcoin as Its SATA Financing Machine Nears $1 Billion

By Lidia Yadlos

Strive has added another 1,375 Bitcoin to its balance sheet, but the bigger number may be the $999 million sitting behind the preferred stock increasingly financing its buying spree.

The company purchased approximately $109 million of Bitcoin between August 31 and September 4 at an average price of $79,281, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The acquisition takes Strive's total holdings to 24,531 BTC, currently worth roughly $1.9 billion.

The purchase was first reported Tuesday by [The Block], which noted that 70% of the capital Strive raised during the week came through SATA, its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock.

"Time to break the billion-dollar wall," Strive CEO Matt Cole wrote on X.

SATA now has approximately $999 million in notional value outstanding, putting the financing vehicle within touching distance of the $1 billion mark.

Strive Has More Than Tripled Its Bitcoin Position This Year

The pace of accumulation has been aggressive. Strive entered 2026 holding 7,749.8 BTC before completing its acquisition of Semler Scientific in January. That transaction brought another 5,048.1 BTC onto the combined balance sheet, increasing Strive's holdings to approximately 12,798 BTC.

Eight months later, the company owns 24,531 BTC. That means Strive has added roughly 11,733 BTC since completing the Semler deal, an increase of about 92%. It has also nearly doubled its Bitcoin position from the level it held immediately after the acquisition.

Bitcoin Treasuries currently ranks Strive as the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, behind Strategy, Twenty One Capital, Metaplanet and MARA Holdings.

Strategy remains in a completely different category with 845,050 BTC. Twenty One Capital holds 43,514 BTC, Metaplanet has 43,000 BTC and MARA holds more than 35,000 BTC. Strive's 24,531 BTC nevertheless puts it ahead of companies including Riot Platforms, Hut 8, CleanSpark, Block and Tesla.

The gap may not stay that wide for long. Cole said last week that it was "not out of the realm of possibility" for Strive to finish 2026 as the second-largest Bitcoin holder among publicly traded companies, although he acknowledged that "some things are going to have to go right."

At today's holdings, reaching Twenty One Capital's current 43,514 BTC position would require Strive to acquire nearly another 19,000 BTC.

SATA Is Becoming the Engine Behind the Bitcoin Purchases

How Strive is paying for those purchases is becoming just as important as how much Bitcoin it owns. SATA is a perpetual preferred stock designed around a $100 stated value. It currently pays a 13% annualized dividend, distributed daily.

As long as SATA trades close to or above its $100 reference level, Strive can issue additional preferred shares through its at-the-market program and use the proceeds to acquire Bitcoin. The latest SEC filing shows how quickly that mechanism is scaling.

SATA shares outstanding increased from 9.07 million on August 28 to nearly 10 million by September 4, an increase of approximately 921,500 shares in one week. At a $100 stated value, the total outstanding preferred stock is now roughly $999.5 million.

Cole said SATA generated 70% of the capital raised during the week, with common-stock issuance accounting for the remainder. Strive still finished the period with more cash despite buying $109 million of Bitcoin. Cash and cash equivalents increased from $183.5 million to $202.6 million between August 28 and September 4.

The company also owns 505,000 shares of Strategy's STRC preferred stock, valued at approximately $49.4 million at the end of the period.

Strive and Strategy Are Taking Different Paths

The structure puts Strive into increasingly direct comparison with Strategy, which pioneered the public-company Bitcoin treasury model. Strategy also uses preferred securities to finance its balance sheet, including STRC, but the two companies are currently seeing different market behavior.

CoinDesk reported Tuesday that SATA has continued trading around its $100 par value while Strategy's STRC has remained below $100 since May. That difference matters because preferred shares trading around par make it easier for the issuer to continue selling stock and raising capital. SATA's 13% annualized dividend is also currently above STRC's 12%.

Strive raised more capital and bought another 1,375 BTC last week. Strategy, meanwhile, made no new Bitcoin purchase and instead spent $176 million repurchasing STRC shares. Strategy also doubled its authorized STRC repurchase program from $1 billion to $2 billion.

Strategy still owns more than 34 times as much Bitcoin as Strive, so the comparison is less about the absolute size of their treasuries and more about the financing models being built around them.

Bitcoin Treasury Companies Are Becoming Capital Markets Businesses

The latest purchase highlights how far the corporate Bitcoin strategy has evolved from simply using excess cash to buy BTC. Companies such as Strive and Strategy are increasingly building securities specifically designed to attract outside capital that can then be converted into additional Bitcoin.

For Strive, SATA has become central to that model. Its January follow-on offering was initially targeted at $150 million but was expanded to $225 million after receiving more than $600 million in demand. Strive used part of those proceeds to reduce debt inherited through the Semler Scientific acquisition while continuing to expand its Bitcoin holdings.

Now SATA is approaching $1 billion outstanding less than eight months later.

That creates a potentially powerful cycle when the market cooperates: investor demand supports preferred-stock issuance, the proceeds finance additional Bitcoin purchases, and a larger Bitcoin treasury can increase investor interest in Strive's securities.

It also creates obligations. A 13% annualized dividend on roughly $1 billion of preferred stock represents approximately $130 million in annual dividend payments if the rate and outstanding amount remained unchanged.

That makes the durability of investor demand, Bitcoin's price and Strive's ability to raise capital efficiently increasingly important to the economics of the strategy. For now, demand has allowed Strive to keep buying.

Another 1,375 BTC has moved onto its balance sheet, its treasury is approaching $2 billion in value, and the preferred stock helping finance that expansion is about to cross a milestone of its own.

Published on Bitcoin

Strive Adds $109M in Bitcoin as Its SATA Financing Machine Nears $1 Billion