Strive Pauses Common Stock Issuance Over Dilution Concerns

By Daniel Okafor

Strive has not issued common shares for two weeks, CEO Matt Cole said, because sales at the company’s current share-price discount would dilute existing shareholders.

The Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company has therefore kept its common-stock issuance channel closed while its preferred shares remain central to the stated strategy of amplifying Bitcoin exposure. Cole’s explanation also extends to the valuation metric Strive displays on its dashboard.

Why did Strive stop issuing common stock?

Cole said Strive “has gone two weeks without issuing common shares.” He said sales at current prices would dilute existing shareholders and that Strive’s shares trade at a discount. The pause, in his account, shields current holders from dilution that selling at current prices would cause.

Cole did not set a date for restarting sales. That leaves the duration of the pause, rather than a scheduled financing window, as the immediate capital-markets question for the company. Cole identified price as the reason for withholding common stock.

What does the mNAV removal change?

Cole also said Strive removed its market-to-net-asset-value ratio (mNAV) calculation from its dashboard over the past week. The ratio compares a company’s market value with its net asset value. A reading of 1.0 means the two are equal, while a reading below 1.0 indicates a discount.

Cole said mNAV captures only one point in time and treats Strive’s operating business like a passive fund. He paired that criticism with the dashboard change. Strive’s shares still trade at a discount, he said, but investors checking the dashboard no longer see the mNAV calculation.

That metric can frame the discount against net asset value. Its removal changes how Strive presents the valuation comparison, not its stated Bitcoin holdings. The operating-business objection remains central to Cole’s stated reason for dropping the calculation.

How do preferred shares fit?

Cole said Strive uses preferred shares “only to amplify its Bitcoin exposure.” He also said the company has no debt and has not pledged its Bitcoin holdings. Those statements define the company’s capital approach: preferred securities sit within the structure used to increase Bitcoin exposure, while Cole says Strive has neither borrowings nor Bitcoin-backed collateral.

Cole said the face value of Strive’s preferred shares exceeded 70% of its Bitcoin holdings after the launch of SATS and the latest market decline. That leaves preferred shares with a face value more than seven-tenths of the Bitcoin holdings he cited.

What do the performance figures show?

Strive’s ASST shares gained about 51% year to date, while Bitcoin fell roughly 19% over the same period, Cole said. The divergence separates equity performance from the balance-sheet comparison in mNAV. ASST’s year-to-date return measures the share-price move, while mNAV compares market value with net assets.

The 70% preferred-share figure concerns face value relative to Bitcoin holdings and does not describe ASST’s year-to-date return. The two percentages answer different questions. That distinction matters because Cole has argued both that common issuance at a discount would dilute holders and that mNAV does not capture Strive’s operating business adequately.

The pause does not change Cole’s stated view of the company’s capital structure. It does place more weight on the relationship between ASST’s market price and net asset value, especially after Strive removed the calculation used to frame that relationship. No resumption date was provided.

What should investors watch?

Strive’s next disclosed update on common issuance and preferred-share exposure will show whether that structure changes. A resumed common-stock sale while ASST trades below net asset value would directly test Cole’s dilution rationale, while any return of mNAV to the dashboard would reopen the valuation comparison he removed.