Strive Inc. (ASST) chief executive Matt Cole said the bitcoin treasury company would remain standing even under an extreme collapse in the price of the cryptocurrency, because its balance sheet carries no debt that could force a liquidation.
Speaking on the Pomp Podcast with Anthony Pompliano on Thursday, Cole said bitcoin "could literally go to a penny" and the company would still meet its obligations. "Because we have preferred equity only, no debt. We have no liquidation point," he said, contrasting Strive's setup with strategies that borrow against bitcoin and can be wiped out when prices fall sharply. "We see this in the coin markets every time it's dropped. How many billions of dollars gets liquidated?"
Strive funds itself through perpetual preferred stock rather than secured borrowing, a structure that removes the margin-call mechanism common to leveraged crypto treasuries. The company has two such securities outstanding: Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock (SATA), which pays a variable 13% dividend that steps up to 13.25% in December, and Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock (SATS), which pays 15%.
Cole said the company stress-tested its holdings against a decline of as much as 80% in bitcoin, keeping roughly 85% to 90% of its balance sheet in the asset and 10% to 15% in cash to cover obligations through a downturn. "We could ride out any historical bear market without even having to sell a single Bitcoin," he said. He described the buffer as possibly too cautious, adding that offloading 2% or 5% of holdings would be "a reasonable risk for a company. You're not blowing up."
Note: Dividend rates as described by Strive CEO Matt Cole.
Cole has made a similar case before, saying in June that cash reserves could keep the dividend flowing through a downturn resembling the 2022-23 bear market without touching the bitcoin stack.
The financing carries a real cost. Preferred dividends are a recurring cash obligation that must be met regardless of how the underlying bitcoin performs in any given quarter, and the yield a company offers effectively sets the hurdle its treasury must clear for common shareholders to come out ahead. Cole acknowledged that bitcoin would need to appreciate faster than the 13% and 15% dividend rates over time for the common equity to benefit. He argued that even if bitcoin only rose at the pace of currency debasement, roughly 7% to 8% a year, Strive could still cover the payments, though in that case all of bitcoin's return would accrue to preferred holders.
He framed the structure as a long-term wager against the U.S. dollar. "They will never stop debasing the U.S. dollar, and so we are perpetually short the U.S. dollar because we are selling a perpetual preferred equity, which will pay dividend forever," he said. Cole also argued that bitcoin represents a tougher benchmark than the S&P 500, calling U.S. Treasuries "the risk guaranteed rate" of losing purchasing power, and named bitcoin, artificial intelligence and energy as the only areas worth focusing on at present.
Strive launched its second preferred product after investors pushed back on the variable-rate structure, worried that success would compress yields toward 7% or 8%, Cole said. That appetite for fixed income suggests digital credit products of this kind could eventually outgrow the preferred offerings from Strategy, he added, since most buyers prefer predictable payouts to a rate that shrinks as the asset class matures. He estimated that roughly 70% of Strive's preferred equity buyers are high-net-worth retail investors, with some early institutional demand as well. Institutional concentration limits that cap exposure to any single issuer's preferred stock at low single-digit percentages leave room for rivals to enter the market, he said.
The cushion is already being tested. Strive holds 43,153 BTC acquired at an average cost of $87,821 per coin, according to the company. With bitcoin trading near $67,018 at the time of writing, the position sits about 24% below that average purchase price, meaning the treasury is underwater on its holdings even as the dividend clock keeps running.
ASST shares closed down 4% on Friday and slipped more than 1% in overnight trading. Retail sentiment around the stock on Stocktwits remained in "bearish" territory over the past day, with message volume at "low" levels, while sentiment on bitcoin itself sat in the "extremely bearish" zone with chatter running "high."
The comments land as bitcoin treasury companies face mounting scrutiny over how they fund coin purchases in a weaker market. Equity issuance dilutes common holders, while debt introduces liquidation risk when collateral values slide. Preferred stock sits between the two, preserving the bitcoin stack but committing the issuer to a fixed cash drain. For investors in ASST, the central question is whether the company's bitcoin holdings can compound faster than the 13% to 15% cost of the capital that financed them; if they cannot, the structure transfers value to preferred holders at the expense of common shareholders. Cole's answer is that the absence of a liquidation trigger buys the company time to be wrong for a while without being forced to sell.
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