Strive Seals Merger With Asset Entities to Form First Public Bitcoin Treasury Asset Manager
Strive Asset Management, a subsidiary of Strive Enterprises Inc., announced on May 7 a definitive merger agreement with Asset Entities Inc. (Nasdaq: ASST), a move that will create the first publicly traded bitcoin treasury asset management company. Strive Enterprises was co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy. The announcement came ahead of Strive CEO Matt Cole’s livestreamed appearance at the Strategy World conference, where he unveiled the firm’s strategic vision. The announcement details:
The combined company will operate under the Strive brand, remain listed on Nasdaq, and become a public bitcoin treasury company.
The merger is structured as a reverse acquisition, giving the combined entity immediate access to an effective shelf registration statement that the firm plans to expand to $1 billion. This capital-raising mechanism is intended to fund bitcoin accumulation through equity and debt offerings while minimizing dilution to shareholders.
Strive Enterprises Inc. is a financial services firm that aims to maximize client value through what it describes as “unapologetic capitalism.” Its asset management subsidiary, Strive Asset Management, manages approximately $2 billion in assets and competes with major global financial institutions. The company recently launched a private wealth management division. Asset Entities Inc., a separate technology company, offers social media marketing, management, and content delivery across platforms including Discord, Tiktok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Youtube.
“Strive Asset Management is deploying first-in-class strategies for a bitcoin treasury company,” the company stated. The strategies include a tax-efficient offering that Strive Asset Management described as the “First company to offer an exchange of bitcoin for public company equity in a manner designed to be tax-free to investors under section 351 of the U.S. tax code, subject to the satisfaction of applicable requirements and individual tax circumstances– estimated at a $1 billion cap.”
Strive’s approach also includes opportunistic acquisitions, which it described as efforts to “seek to acquire cash at a discount by merging publicly traded companies whose equity values are below their net cash positions, creating a potential multi-billion dollar opportunity to acquire bitcoin in a manner accretive to common equity.” In articulating the company’s long-term outlook, the announcement adds:
Strive Asset Management intends to use all available mechanisms to build a bitcoin war chest in a minimally dilutive manner to common shareholders and build a long-term investment approach designed to outperform bitcoin, by using bitcoin itself as the hurdle rate for capital deployment.
With Strive Enterprises remaining privately held, the public-facing entity aims to combine institutional investment experience with bitcoin-focused innovation to reshape digital asset strategy in public markets.
