Strive raises $630M with 15% SATS preferred to fund bitcoin

Strive (Nasdaq: ASST), one of the fastest-growing bitcoin treasury companies, has priced an upsized sale of its new 15.00% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock, raising about $630 million before fees. The company sold 7 million shares at $90 each — 2 million more than it first announced — and expects the deal to settle on October 20.

The terms

• Size: 7,000,000 shares, up from 5,000,000, for gross proceeds of roughly $630 million.
• Dividend: 15% a year on a $100 stated amount per share, cumulative. At the $90 offering price, that works out to an effective yield of about 16.7%, as CoinDesk calculated.
• Payment schedule: if declared by the board, dividends are payable on each business day starting November 9. The Block reports Strive plans to set aside enough cash to cover 18 months of payments.
• Use of proceeds: general corporate purposes, "including, among other things, the acquisition of bitcoin," according to the press release, as well as working capital, income-generating assets and possible buybacks of its Class A common or SATA preferred stock. Strive did not say how much will go into BTC.

A fast-growing treasury

Strive has been buying aggressively. After a 3,311 BTC purchase took it to 32,773 coins, it added another 2,822 BTC, bringing its total to 35,595 BTC — worth roughly $2.9 billion and, according to The Block, just ahead of miner MARA among public bitcoin holders.

That pace prompted TD Cowen analysts Lance Vitanza and Jonnathan Navarrete to raise their price target on ASST to $56 from $44. They noted Strive bought more bitcoin in two weeks than they had forecast for the whole fourth quarter, while warning that new shares from warrant exercises had weighed on its "BTC Yield" metric. They expect the preferred sale to fund further buying without issuing more common stock. ASST shares still fell 6.6% to $23.96 on Friday, in a broad slide for crypto stocks.

Why preferreds

High-yield preferred shares have become the funding tool of choice for bitcoin treasury firms, letting them raise money without diluting common shareholders. Strategy is moving its own STRC preferred to daily dividends from November, while index provider MSCI's new non-operating company rules could push some of these firms out of major equity benchmarks. The structure works as long as investors keep buying — and bitcoin's price holds up.