Strive CEO Matt Cole addresses Bitcoin treasury criticism, says alignment runs deeper than critics think

Matt Cole wants you to know he’s not trying to pick a fight. The Strive Inc. CEO, whose company now sits on nearly 20,000 BTC worth roughly $1.3 billion, says the gulf between Bitcoin treasury advocates and their loudest critics is narrower than either side lets on.

In a July 22 interview, Cole argued that both camps fundamentally agree on the problem: traditional treasury strategies are losing ground to currency debasement. Where they diverge is the solution. Cole thinks Bitcoin is that solution. His critics think he’s lost the plot.

The case Cole is making

Cole previously managed over $70 billion in fixed-income assets at CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the US.

Cole frames Bitcoin as what he calls the “hardest hurdle rate” for corporate capital allocation. In English: if your treasury strategy can’t outperform Bitcoin over time, you need to explain why you’re not just holding Bitcoin instead.

Strive, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker ASST, held 19,921 BTC as of July 17, 2026, making it the seventh-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin globally. That stash is valued at approximately $1.3 billion.

Strive scooped up 759 BTC in mid-June 2026, with additional smaller purchases through July at prices averaging between $63,000 and $74,000 per coin.

The critics and the counterarguments

Short-seller Jim Chanos has been particularly pointed, dismissing these strategies as “financial gibberish.” Chanos’s argument, broadly, is that companies using debt or equity to buy Bitcoin aren’t creating value — they’re just adding leverage and volatility to their balance sheets while calling it innovation.

Cole contends that the underlying recognition of fiscal challenges — the weakening purchasing power of fiat currencies, the ballooning of government debt — is something both sides actually share. The disagreement is really about whether Bitcoin is the right hedge against those macro headwinds.

Building the infrastructure around the thesis

Strive has developed SATA, a perpetual preferred stock designed to offer daily dividends and target a price range of $99 to $101. The product is essentially a way for conservative institutional capital to get Bitcoin-linked returns without directly holding the asset.

Strive also acquired Semler Scientific earlier in 2026, a move that expanded its Bitcoin treasury and deepened its corporate infrastructure.

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