Strive buys Strategy stocks, and Bitcoin Treasury Company begins to intertwine with each other.

Strive buys Strategy stocks, and Bitcoin treasury companies start to play a game of mutual layering.

Author: Curry, Deep Tide TechFlow

On March 11, a company called Strive announced a few things.

It increased its Bitcoin holdings by 179 coins, totaling 13,311 coins worth about $930 million. Its preferred stock SATA’s dividend rate was raised to 12.75%. Additionally, it spent $50 million to buy preferred shares of Strategy STRC.

$50 million, more than one-third of Strive’s corporate treasury.

What does Strive do? It hoards Bitcoin. What does Strategy do? It also hoards Bitcoin.

This became: a Bitcoin-hoarding company used one-third of its money to buy stock issued by another Bitcoin-hoarding company.

Strive’s Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton tweeted that STRC is a “high-quality credit product, with good liquidity, and a risk-return profile better than traditional fixed income.” Translation: We think this is more attractive than government bonds.

He also did some quick math, saying that if that $50 million were used to buy U.S. Treasuries, the annual interest would be a few million dollars. Buying STRC, the annualized return could be an extra $3.9 million.

Sounds pretty profitable.

But think carefully: where did the money for Strategy to issue STRC come from?

Strategy issues STRC to raise funds, which are then used to buy Bitcoin. STRC can pay interest, provided Strategy’s Bitcoin doesn’t drop too sharply.

So the underlying logic of Strive’s investment is: the Bitcoin I hoard will go up, the Bitcoin Strategy hoards will also go up, and only if their Bitcoin rises can they pay me interest. I then use that interest to hoard more Bitcoin.

This isn’t diversification; it’s nesting dolls.

In case you don’t know about Strive

Many know Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), but few know about Strive.

But now, this company holds 13,311 Bitcoin, worth about $930 million, just surpassing Tesla’s holdings, ranking around the tenth largest publicly listed company in the world.

Strive’s founder is Vivek Ramaswamy, a second-generation Indian immigrant, Harvard undergrad, Yale Law School. In 2022, he and a high school friend founded Strive in Ohio, focusing on asset management and ETF funds.

Early investors include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

In just a year and a half, the fund’s management exceeded $1 billion. But Vivek didn’t stay long—he resigned early 2023 to run for U.S. President. He didn’t win the Republican primary against Trump, and this year he’s running for Ohio governor. Interestingly, Trump and Musk have endorsed him…

After Vivek left, the CEO who took over was Matt Cole, who previously managed $70 billion at California’s public pension fund, coming from traditional finance. But last year, he made a somewhat unconventional decision.

In September 2025, Cole announced that Strive would transform from a fund company into a “Bitcoin treasury company.” It spent $675 million to buy over 5,800 Bitcoin at an average price of $116,000 each. That same month, it announced acquiring another listed company, Semler Scientific, and after the merger, its Bitcoin holdings exceeded 10,000 coins.

Half a year later, holdings grew to 13,311 coins.

A fund company founded in 2022, within three years, became one of the top ten corporate Bitcoin holders globally. The speed is astonishing, prompting a question:

Where did they get the money to buy all these Bitcoins?

Nested doll issuing stocks

Where does Strive’s money to buy Bitcoin come from? It raises funds by issuing stocks.

Last November, Strive issued a preferred stock called SATA. Investors buy in, and Strive pays quarterly interest, currently at an annual rate of 12.75%. The raised funds are used to buy Bitcoin.

This approach isn’t original to Strive. It was invented by Michael Saylor.

Saylor’s company Strategy owns over 730,000 Bitcoin, making it the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder. Last year, Strategy launched a similar product called STRC, where investors buy in, and Strategy pays interest, currently at an annual rate of 11.5%. The funds raised are also used to buy Bitcoin.

Up to this point, the two companies operated independently, with similar logic, unrelated.

But on March 11, that changed. Strive used $50 million to buy STRC.

The chain now looks like this:

Strategy issues STRC to raise money to buy Bitcoin, Strive buys STRC to earn interest, and Strive issues its own SATA to raise more funds to buy Bitcoin and STRC.

Layer upon layer, each paying double-digit interest, with each layer’s ability to pay based on one thing: Bitcoin cannot drop sharply.

When Bitcoin rises, everyone profits. When Bitcoin falls, everyone’s interest payments are at risk, but no layer can independently stop losses because your assets are someone else’s liabilities.

Three-layer products, three layers of interest, three groups of investors. The underlying asset is Bitcoin that cannot fall.

And Strive’s own stock, ASST, recently hit a 52-week high of $268 but is now below $9, a 97% drop. On the day it announced buying STRC (March 11), the stock only rose 5.52%.

At the end of October last year, ASST fell below $0.80, nearly 50% below its net asset value based on Bitcoin holdings.

So the picture is this: a company holding $930 million in Bitcoin has a market value of just over $500 million. Its stock price has fallen 97% from its high. Yet, management continues to add—buying more Bitcoin, buying STRC, and increasing the interest on SATA.

However, Strategy’s own stock, MSTR, has been falling for eight months straight. Bitcoin has also retreated significantly from last year’s high.

But everyone on this chain keeps adding.

In the first two months of this year, Strategy bought an additional 66,000 Bitcoin—more than any full year before. Meanwhile, Strive increased its Bitcoin holdings and spent $50 million on STRC. SATA’s dividend rate has risen from 10% at listing to 12.75%. STRC’s dividend rate also increased from 10% to 11.5%.

As interest rates climb, it becomes harder for investors to stay, so they have to pay more.

Data shows that over 200 publicly listed companies worldwide have adopted a “Bitcoin treasury strategy.” Before 2025, this number was less than 30.

Saylor invented a new way, and 200 companies are copying him. Now, they’re starting to buy each other’s products.

When everyone’s bets are on the same table, the line between “structured finance” and “massive concentrated gambling” might just be a few arrows drawn on a PPT.