STRIVE BUYS 1,375 MORE BITCOIN — ABOUT 85% PAID FOR BY SELLING THE PREFERRED WHOSE 13% “DIVIDEND” ITS OWN TAX FILING CALLS 100% RETURN OF CAPITAL
The dividend is almost five times the whole business's revenue. Its own tax filing says what that makes it.
Read the funding line, not the buy headline.
Strive bought 1,375 bitcoin between August 31 and September 4, at about $79,281 a coin — roughly $109 million. Its stack goes from 23,156 to 24,531. Cash did not go down to pay for it; cash went up $19 million. So this was not paid from a business. It was raised.
Where from: the SATA preferred. Strive sold 921,511 new shares of its Variable Rate Series A preferred this week. At its $99–101 issue band that is about $92 million — roughly 85% of the bitcoin it bought. Common stock did the rest, a minor top-up. The preferred is the engine that buys the coin.
Now the part that matters, and it is not our opinion, it is Strive’s own filing. On September 2 the company filed a Form 8937 stating it has zero earnings and profits for 2026, so 100% of the August SATA distributions are a return of capital. In plain words: the 13% “dividend” on that preferred is not paid out of profit, because there is no profit. Last quarter Strive booked $2.76 million of revenue and paid $13.45 million in preferred dividends. The dividend is almost five times the whole business’s revenue. It is funded by selling more preferred — the same shares sold this week — and the company’s own tax paperwork says what that makes it: your capital, handed back to you, taxed as a return of capital because it never was income.
This is not a Strive quirk. It is the category. Strategy filed the identical position — zero earnings and profits, 100% return of capital — across all five of its preferred series, and its STRC prospectus says so in the offering document itself. Two different issuers, two sets of lawyers, the same sentence to the IRS. The preferred-funded bitcoin treasury pays its yield in the investor’s own money and reports it honestly on Form 8937, where almost no buyer reads it.
The Capitalist point is the stack order. Every week of buying adds more preferred claims that sit ahead of the common. At last week’s CEBE read the preferred stood near $907 million against the bitcoin; this week’s sale adds about $92 million more of it. Owning the coin is one thing. Owning a 13% coupon that is legally your own capital coming back, behind a preferred stack that grows every week, is another.
At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $78,289 (Crypto.com, 8:03 AM ET, Sep 8).
Strive bought 1,375 bitcoin between August 31 and September 4, at about $79,281 a coin — roughly $109 million. Its stack goes from 23,156 to 24,531. Cash did not go down to pay for it; cash went up $19 million. So this was not paid from a business. It was raised.
Where from: the SATA preferred. Strive sold 921,511 new shares of its Variable Rate Series A preferred this week. At its $99–101 issue band that is about $92 million — roughly 85% of the bitcoin it bought. Common stock did the rest, a minor top-up. The preferred is the engine that buys the coin.
Now the part that matters, and it is not our opinion, it is Strive’s own filing. On September 2 the company filed a Form 8937 stating it has zero earnings and profits for 2026, so 100% of the August SATA distributions are a return of capital. In plain words: the 13% “dividend” on that preferred is not paid out of profit, because there is no profit. Last quarter Strive booked $2.76 million of revenue and paid $13.45 million in preferred dividends. The dividend is almost five times the whole business’s revenue. It is funded by selling more preferred — the same shares sold this week — and the company’s own tax paperwork says what that makes it: your capital, handed back to you, taxed as a return of capital because it never was income.
This is not a Strive quirk. It is the category. Strategy filed the identical position — zero earnings and profits, 100% return of capital — across all five of its preferred series, and its STRC prospectus says so in the offering document itself. Two different issuers, two sets of lawyers, the same sentence to the IRS. The preferred-funded bitcoin treasury pays its yield in the investor’s own money and reports it honestly on Form 8937, where almost no buyer reads it.
The Capitalist point is the stack order. Every week of buying adds more preferred claims that sit ahead of the common. At last week’s CEBE read the preferred stood near $907 million against the bitcoin; this week’s sale adds about $92 million more of it. Owning the coin is one thing. Owning a 13% coupon that is legally your own capital coming back, behind a preferred stack that grows every week, is another.
At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $78,289 (Crypto.com, 8:03 AM ET, Sep 8).
KEY RECEIPTS
The buy: 1,375 BTC at about $79,281 (incl. fees), Aug 31–Sep 4; holdings 23,156 → 24,531. Cash $183.5M → $202.6M (+$19.1M). STRC held 505,000, fair value $49.15M → $49.36M (Strive 8-K, Sep 8, the primary).
Funding: SATA preferred shares 9,073,914 → 9,995,425 (+921,511); at the $99–101 issue band that is about $91.2M–$93.1M gross, ~85% of the $109M buy — our arithmetic on the filing’s share count. Class A common +2,226,612; Class B −554,624; effective common +1,671,988 (same 8-K). The filing states share counts, not per-program net proceeds; the common dollar figure is not disclosed and is not stated here.
Form 8937, signed Sep 2, 2026: zero current and accumulated earnings and profits for 2026; 100% of August SATA distributions are return of capital.
Q1 2026, Strive’s own statements: revenue $2.76M; employee comp $13.05M; preferred dividends $13.45M; GAAP net loss $265.9M, of which $295.8M was a bitcoin markdown.
SATA terms: $100 stated amount, perpetual, cumulative; rate 13.00% since May 16, 2026 (12.75% from Mar 11, 12.00% from Nov 2025); declared monthly, paid daily at $0.0516/share every business day since Jun 16. The non-payment escalator adds 25bp and 25bp more each month, capped at 20%/yr, and applies to the arrears, not the whole instrument — from 13% the cap is about 27 months of continuous non-payment away.
The category: Strategy filed the same zero-E&P, 100%-return-of-capital position across its five preferred series, and its STRC prospectus states it in the offering document. Position cited; none of Strategy’s holdings figures are mixed into Strive’s here.
CEBE gap (pass two pending): CEBE’s last verified read is Aug 28 — 23,156 BTC, preferred about $907.4M, senior claims 37.44%, mNAV about 2.0x, 15,532 sats per share. That predates this week’s buy and preferred sale; it has not caught up. Data: CEBE Tracker.
Funding: SATA preferred shares 9,073,914 → 9,995,425 (+921,511); at the $99–101 issue band that is about $91.2M–$93.1M gross, ~85% of the $109M buy — our arithmetic on the filing’s share count. Class A common +2,226,612; Class B −554,624; effective common +1,671,988 (same 8-K). The filing states share counts, not per-program net proceeds; the common dollar figure is not disclosed and is not stated here.
Form 8937, signed Sep 2, 2026: zero current and accumulated earnings and profits for 2026; 100% of August SATA distributions are return of capital.
Q1 2026, Strive’s own statements: revenue $2.76M; employee comp $13.05M; preferred dividends $13.45M; GAAP net loss $265.9M, of which $295.8M was a bitcoin markdown.
SATA terms: $100 stated amount, perpetual, cumulative; rate 13.00% since May 16, 2026 (12.75% from Mar 11, 12.00% from Nov 2025); declared monthly, paid daily at $0.0516/share every business day since Jun 16. The non-payment escalator adds 25bp and 25bp more each month, capped at 20%/yr, and applies to the arrears, not the whole instrument — from 13% the cap is about 27 months of continuous non-payment away.
The category: Strategy filed the same zero-E&P, 100%-return-of-capital position across its five preferred series, and its STRC prospectus states it in the offering document. Position cited; none of Strategy’s holdings figures are mixed into Strive’s here.
CEBE gap (pass two pending): CEBE’s last verified read is Aug 28 — 23,156 BTC, preferred about $907.4M, senior claims 37.44%, mNAV about 2.0x, 15,532 sats per share. That predates this week’s buy and preferred sale; it has not caught up. Data: CEBE Tracker.
THE PREFERRED BUYS THE COIN. THE COUPON IS YOUR OWN CAPITAL, COMING BACK.
Strive 8-K (Item 8.01, primary) + Form 8937 + Q1 statements · Tue Sep 8 · + CEBE Tracker as of Aug 28
Terms in this story: STRC, Preferred shares, mNAV multiple