Strive Adds 4,045 Bitcoin in a Week as Strategy Buys Through Its Own MSCI Scare

Two of the biggest corporate Bitcoin buyers did not slow down last week, even with an index provider actively trying to push one of them out of the market's passive money.

A $335 MILLION WEEK FOR STRIVE

Strive, the Nasdaq-listed treasury company led by CEO Matt Cole, disclosed in a Form 8-K that it bought 1,223 Bitcoin between October 14 and October 16 at an average price of $81,734 per coin. That purchase closed out a five-day run in which Strive added 4,045 Bitcoin in total, spending roughly $335 million at an average price near $82,803. The company's holdings now stand at 36,818 BTC, worth more than $3 billion at current prices.

Cole posted the update himself: "Last Wed-Fri, Strive acquired 1,223 BTC at an average cost of $81,734 per bitcoin, bringing holdings to ₿36,818." He added that proceeds from the company's SATS preferred stock offering are due to settle on October 20, and that Strive plans to keep an 18-month dividend reserve in place.

Strive started this year holding 7,525 Bitcoin. The pace since then has been relentless: three separate purchase announcements in the past eight days alone, funded partly by warrant exercises that brought in roughly $369 million. The company is now the fourth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, and it would need to average around 700 BTC a week to catch Metaplanet's stack. At its current rate, that is not a hypothetical.

STRATEGY ADDS 267 BITCOIN, BUYS BACK ITS OWN PREFERRED STOCK

Strategy made a smaller headline move by comparison but a telling one. Michael Saylor disclosed that the company bought 267 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to a record 848,517 BTC, funded mostly by selling MSTR common stock rather than new debt or preferred issuance. Alongside that purchase, Strategy repurchased $193 million of its STRC preferred stock and raised its digital credit securities buyback authorization from $2 billion to $3 billion.

The STRC repurchase matters because the stock has spent months trying to claw back to its $100 par value after dropping to around $72 roughly five months ago. It came within pennies of par last week before the MSCI news knocked it back down to a low near $97.56. Getting STRC back to par is the trigger Strategy has used in the past to unlock a larger wave of Bitcoin buying through its preferred offerings.

WHY MSCI IS TRYING TO PUSH STRATEGY OUT

The pressure on both stocks traces back to an October 15 decision by MSCI, the index provider, to classify "non-operating companies" as ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes. The rule targets firms whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset rather than an operating business, which describes Strategy's model directly. MSCI will publish its final removal list on November 11, with the change taking effect at the close of trading on November 30.

Strategy's stock fell 9.6% to $137 on October 16, the day after the news broke, and was down 11.4% for the week. JPMorgan estimated that a formal removal could force roughly $2.8 billion in passive selling, since MSCI-linked funds currently hold about 13 million MSTR shares, close to 60% of the stock's average trading volume.

Nothing about Strategy's Bitcoin holdings changed because of the MSCI decision. The stock dropped on index mechanics, not on a change in the company's balance sheet or its buying plans, and both Strategy and Strive kept adding coins through the same week the news hit.

THE BUYING DIDN'T STOP

That is the actual story sitting underneath the index drama. A passive-fund provider moved to cut off one source of demand for Strategy's stock, and the response from the two most aggressive corporate Bitcoin buyers was to keep buying anyway, one of them at a pace that puts it on track to pass Metaplanet for the number three spot within weeks.

This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.