Strive's $511 Million Bitcoin Buy Puts It Within Reach of the Treasury Top Three

Strive bought 6,182 Bitcoin last week for about $511.4 million, pushing its treasury to 43,000 BTC and putting it within reach of the number three spot on the corporate Bitcoin leaderboard. Michael Saylor's Strategy did not buy a single coin. It spent far more cash doing something else: trying to drag its Stretch preferred stock back to its $100 par value.

STRIVE'S FASTEST WEEK YET

Strive chairman and CEO Matt Cole disclosed the purchase in a Form 8-K and on X: 6,182 BTC for $511.4 million, an average of $82,732 a coin, funded without taking on debt. The pace is accelerating. Strive bought 4,045 BTC the week before that and roughly 3,000 BTC the week before that. Over seven days, its stack grew nearly 17 percent, from 36,818 BTC to 43,000 BTC.

That now puts Strive fourth among publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders, behind Strategy, Metaplanet's 44,000 BTC and Twenty One Capital's 43,514 BTC. Just 514 coins separate Strive from third place, and at its current buying pace, that gap could close within a week or two. Cole has said his goal is to finish 2026 as the second largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin. Strive also filed a prospectus for a new $1 billion at-the-market program for its SATS preferred stock, giving it fresh capital to keep buying.

WHY STRATEGY DIDN'T BUY

Strategy's own filing told a different story. The company bought no Bitcoin at all in the week ending October 25, leaving its holdings unchanged at 848,517 BTC. Instead, it spent $204.9 million repurchasing shares of STRC, the preferred stock known as Stretch, funded out of its $5.1 billion cash position.

The mechanism matters. STRC is designed to trade near its $100 par value. When it trades above par, Strategy issues new shares and uses the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. When it trades below par, as it has for most of the year after falling into the low $70s in June, Strategy buys back shares instead to support the price. STRC closed Monday near $99.60, within striking distance of par for the first time since the spring. If it holds there, the channel that funded some of Strategy's biggest Bitcoin purchases reopens.

GALAXY RESEARCH SAYS THE BOTTOM IS ALREADY IN

The same week, Galaxy Digital's head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, sent clients a note arguing Bitcoin's bear market ended in June and the asset has moved into an accumulation phase. Thorn pointed to Bitcoin closing above its 50-week moving average for five straight weeks, the first sustained recovery above that line after 44 weeks below it. He also noted the decline from Bitcoin's October 2025 high topped out at 53 percent, the shallowest drawdown of any Bitcoin bear market on record, against declines of 93, 85 and 84 percent in prior cycles.

Thorn also flagged that leveraged funds and basis traders who rode Bitcoin into last October's high have cut their futures exposure by more than half, while long term holders have mostly stayed put. His conclusion was blunt: "we believe now is an attractive time to buy and hold bitcoin." He did leave himself an out. A weekly close back below the 50-week average, currently near $76,500, without a quick recovery would undercut the thesis.

None of that stopped Bitcoin from dipping under $79,000 over the weekend before settling back near $80,000, well below the $90,000 level that looked reachable two weeks ago. What hasn't slowed down is the buying underneath that price. Strive is accumulating faster than it ever has, and Strategy's next move now depends on one number: whether STRC can close back above $100.

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