Strive Bets $630 Million That Bitcoin Beats 15%

Strive priced 7 million SATS shares at $90 on October 15, seeking about $630 million in gross proceeds before fees. The Dallas bitcoin-treasury company, listed on Nasdaq as ASST, raised the deal by 2 million shares from the 5 million it had proposed on October 13. Settlement is scheduled for October 20.

The new paper is 15.00% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock. It pays a 15% dividend on a $100 stated amount, every business day, if the board declares it. Common shareholders only keep the spread if bitcoin’s return beats that coupon for years.

Strive Prices 7 Million SATS Shares at $90

Chairman and CEO Matt Cole, a former CalPERS fixed-income portfolio manager who has run Strive since April 2023, posted the print as a $700 million notional deal. Notional is 7 million shares times the $100 stated amount. Cash in the door is $90 a share, or $630 million, before underwriting discounts, commissions, and expenses.

Strive announces upsized IPO of $SATS to $700M notional, priced at $90 per share.

We'll discuss the details in depth on the next @HurdleRatePod, which will be released when the IPO settles next Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/10P6R4voHi

— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) October 16, 2026

Barclays and Cantor are joint book-running managers. Clear Street is lead manager. B. Riley Securities, H.C. Wainwright & Co., Maxim Group LLC, and StoneX are co-managers. Strive has applied to list SATS on the Nasdaq Global Market and says it intends to start an at-the-market program after that listing, on terms not yet set.

Class A shares rose about 4% on the pricing day. Cole said the next episode of Hurdle Rate Pod will drop when the IPO settles on October 20. The company still has to close, and the board still has to declare every dividend.

Fifteen Percent on Stock Sold at $90

SATS accumulates a 15% annual dividend on $100, which is $15 a year per share. Sold at $90, that is a 16.7% yield on cash put up. Full months are designed to total $1.25 a share. Payments are cumulative, so unpaid amounts stack, and Strive cannot pay or buy back junior stock, including common, while SATS dividends sit overdue, aside from usual exceptions.

SATS CASH VERSUS THE COUPON

• Gross proceeds: About $630 million at $90 a share, before fees.
• Stated claim: $700 million of notional preferred at $100 a share.
• Yearly SATS coupon: $105 million if all 7 million shares stay out and the 15% rate is paid in full.
• 18-month reserve: $22.50 a share, or $157.5 million, funded from cash and securities already on the books.

The SATS prospectus supplement for the offering says the company expects to fund cash dividends mainly through more capital raising, including at-the-market sales. That is the other half of the bet. The coupon is fixed. The cash to pay it is not a bitcoin coupon. It has to be raised, earned, or drawn from reserves.

Strategy, the much larger bitcoin-treasury issuer, sells preferred at lower stated rates. Strategy’s 10% STRF preferred recently traded near $104, a 9.61% market yield on that 10% coupon. Its 8% STRK preferred recently traded near $75, a 10.64% market yield. SATS is asking income buyers to accept a junior claim on a smaller stack in exchange for 15% on par.

SATA’s $1.4 Billion Claim Still Comes First

SATS sits below SATA, Strive’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, and above Class A and Class B common. Strive has had no debt since May 12, 2026, and says none of its bitcoin is pledged. The senior layer is still large. SATA’s stated amount was $1.403 billion as of October 9, and the board has kept its variable rate at 13% for periods beginning November 1.

At that rate, SATA’s indicated annual bill is about $182 million. SATS, if fully paid, adds $105 million. The new issue does not replace SATA. It stacks under it. Strive closed its first preferred IPO in November 2025, selling 2 million SATA shares at $80 after upsizing from 1.25 million. Stated SATA has since grown from $200 million to $1.403 billion, a 7.0 times rise.

WHERE SATS SITS IN THE STACK

SATA is built to trade near $100. Strive’s own deck says it printed at or above $100 on 24% of days (55 of 230) from its IPO through October 9. Strategy’s STRC, a par-anchored preferred, did so on 16% of days (48 of 302) since its July 29, 2025 close. When those names trade under par, ATM issuance gets harder. SATS is being sold without a target trading range, which is the point. It can be issued when SATA cannot.

That design also cuts both ways. A 15% junior coupon can pull yield buyers out of SATA even though SATA ranks higher and pays 13%. Fresh capital only helps if it earns its cost and if the senior book still clears near $100.

The Deck Bets on a 50% Bitcoin Year

Strive’s SATS investor presentation is blunt about the trade. It uses a 50% Bitcoin base-case planning assumption, minus the 15% SATS financing cost, and calls the 35% gap “spread on incremental capital.” The slide is illustrative, not a forecast, and it excludes taxes, fees, and messy price paths.

The asset grows. The obligation stays fixed. The spread accrues to the common.

Strive, SATS investor presentation, October 2026

The same deck sets bitcoin at $82,500 on October 9 and sketches three year-end 2030 paths over 4.25 years, all labelled as planning cases with no probabilities attached.

THREE PATHS IN THE SATS DECK

• Lower growth: About $250,000 a coin at 30% a year, if tailwinds arrive late or only in part.
• Base case: About $458,000 a coin at 50% a year, the figure used for the 35% spread math.
• High growth: About $777,000 a coin at 70% a year, if every tailwind arrives.

The presentation also states that about $149,000 a coin by year-end 2030 would be enough for bitcoin to compound at 15% from $82,500, matching the SATS hurdle. Below that path, preferred holders still have a cumulative claim. Common equity is the residual. Amplification is defined in the deck as preferred equity plus debt, divided by the value of bitcoin held. Warrant exercises, the company says, lowered that ratio and opened room to rebuild it while bitcoin was under $100,000.

Cole’s public record matches the slide. He has said Strive uses bitcoin as the hurdle rate for capital. The SATS print is that hurdle turned into a listed security.

Daily Dividends Start on November 9

Regular SATS dividend dates are each business day beginning November 9, 2026. The first record date in the deck is November 6. If the board declares the first payment in full, it covers amounts accrued from the day after closing through that date. After that, each business day’s dividend is meant to be paid that day to the prior day’s holders of record.

THE SATS CALENDAR

1. October 13, 2026: Strive proposes 5 million SATS shares and posts the investor presentation.
2. October 12-13, 2026: The company buys 2,822 bitcoin at an average $83,266, including fees, for about $235 million.
3. October 15, 2026: SATS prices at $90 on 7 million shares, a 2 million share upsize.
4. October 20, 2026: Scheduled settlement, subject to customary closing conditions.
5. November 9, 2026: First scheduled SATS dividend date, if declared.

Holders can put SATS back to Strive at the $100 stated amount plus accrued dividends after a defined fundamental change. Strive can redeem all, and not less than all, if fewer than 25% of issued SATS shares remain outstanding, or after certain tax events. The liquidation preference starts at $100 and can step up to recent sale prices when Strive is issuing more SATS, but it cannot step below $100.

That is not a promise the checks clear. Dividends are “when, as, and if declared,” out of funds legally available. The $22.50 reserve is 18 months of the $15 annual coupon. It is a buffer, not a lockbox that replaces the need to keep raising capital.

Proceeds Can Buy Bitcoin, Assets, or Stock

Net proceeds are listed for general corporate purposes. Bitcoin is first on the list. It is not the only item, and the company has not said how many coins this print will buy.

STATED USES OF SATS CASH

• Bitcoin: Open-market coins and bitcoin-related products, subject to cash needs.
• Operations: Working capital, income-generating assets, and other capital spending.
• Capital stack: Possible repurchases of Class A common or SATA preferred.
• Deals: Possible purchases of businesses, assets, or technology that fit the current business.

As of October 9, before the latest coins, the 35,595 figure was still two days away. The prospectus put holdings at 32,773 bitcoin, with a $2.9 billion cost, a $2.7 billion fair value, and an $89,353 average purchase price including fees. Cash was $310.3 million, plus $50.3 million of Strategy STRC preferred. Adding 2,822 coins at $83,266 produced 35,595 bitcoin, 18 more than MARA Holdings’ 35,577 at the time, and fourth among public treasuries behind Strategy at 848,250, Metaplanet at 44,000, and Twenty One Capital at 43,514.

Holdings at the start of 2026 were 7,627 bitcoin. By October 9 they had risen 4.3 times, to 32,773. Satoshis per fully diluted share in the deck rose 70%, from 17,037 to 28,973. Strive Asset Management, a wholly owned SEC-registered adviser, managed over $2.8 billion. On January 16, 2026, Strive closed its purchase of Semler Scientific, picking up that company’s bitcoin reserve and its medical-device business.

An original 5 million share SATS case in the deck held back $112.5 million as an 18-month reserve and sent $387.5 million to bitcoin at $82,500, against $257.4 million a year of combined SATA and SATS dividends. The priced deal is 7 million shares, so those illustrations are stale on size. Gross proceeds of $630 million at last week’s $83,266 average would theoretically cover thousands of coins if every dollar went to bitcoin, which the use-of-proceeds language does not require.

The $630 million print still has to settle on October 20. Until then, SATS is a priced claim, not coins in custody, and the 15% coupon starts from the close, not from the press release.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a preferred-stock offering by Strive, Inc. and is for information only. It is not investment advice, tax advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell SATS, SATA, ASST, bitcoin, or any other security or digital asset. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser, tax professional, or securities attorney who can review their own situation before acting on any of these terms. Share counts, prices, proceeds, bitcoin holdings, dividend dates, and reserve figures reflect company statements and filings as of the dates cited and may change with market moves, board decisions, underwriting costs, and whether the offering closes.