Strive buys 3,311 bitcoin for $280 million, holdings reach 32,773

Strive bought 3,311 bitcoin (BTC) last week, a purchase worth about $280 million, and now holds 32,773 coins. A filing on October 13 disclosed the buy, which lifts the firm run by Matt Cole to fifth place among public companies that hold bitcoin.

In a Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Strive said it paid an average of about $84,500 per bitcoin, including fees, for coins bought between October 5 and October 9. It did not give a total dollar cost for the week.

A week earlier, Strive bought 2,000 bitcoin at an average near $84,422, a separate filing showed, taking its holdings from 27,462 to 29,462. The company started its bitcoin treasury strategy only this year. The two buys together added more than 5,300 coins in a fortnight.

A fast climb up the bitcoin rankings

Strive now ranks fifth among listed companies by bitcoin held, tracker bitcointreasuries.net shows, behind Strategy, Metaplanet, Twenty One and MARA. The model it uses, a bitcoin treasury company, raises money from investors to buy and keep the coin on its balance sheet.

Strategy remains far ahead. It holds 848,250 coins after adding 250 last week. Metaplanet, in second, holds about 44,000, Twenty One about 43,514 and MARA 35,577.

That leaves Strive 11,227 coins behind Metaplanet, a gap worth about $937 million at last week's prices. Cole has said he wants Strive to finish 2026 as the world's second-largest public holder. To get there, the company would need to add roughly 990 bitcoin a week, and only if Metaplanet stopped buying. Metaplanet is unlikely to stop.

Fifth place, for now.

Warrants and preferred shares paid for it

Strive is funding its buying through its own securities, not cash from operations. It splits those securities in two: common stock it calls digital equity, and preferred stock it calls digital credit. Investors exercised about $208 million of warrants during the week, Cole said on X. The filing shows the shares behind its traditional warrants fell by nearly 8 million, to 15,255,900, with most of the rest due to expire on October 13. Its Class A share count rose by about 9.5 million, to 101.2 million. Cash and equivalents climbed to $310.3 million as of October 9.

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, welcomed the move. 'Strive is turning demand for digital equity (ASST) and digital credit (SATA) into demand for Bitcoin,' he wrote on X. Strategy itself keeps buying, though its most recent purchase was small next to its stockpile.

The catch in a treasury built on its own stock

This model has a weak point. Dilution is the trade-off. Each round of new warrants or preferred shares lifts the share count, so existing holders own a smaller slice of the company unless the bitcoin holds its value. The buying was not cheap. The coins bought last week cost about $84,500 each. Bitcoin traded near $83,200 shortly after 00:00 UTC on 14 October, according to CoinGecko. That leaves the week's purchases a little underwater. Strive is betting the price recovers. Nothing guarantees it will.

What to watch

Strive files these updates most weeks, so the next one will show whether the buying held up once the warrants ran out. Watch the gap to Metaplanet, which bought hard through the year. Watch too whether Strive can keep placing preferred shares at $100 while its common stock, ASST, trades near $27. The second-place goal rests on both.