Strive shares jump on 'daily dividend company' strategy as firm goes debt free

Strive Inc. shares (NASDAQ: ASST) jumped as much as 7% on Thursday after the Vivek Ramaswamy-founded bitcoin treasury company unveiled what it called a new "daily dividend company" strategy for its preferred stock while also disclosing it had fully cleared all debts.

The company said its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, trading under the ticker SATA, will begin paying dividends every business day starting June 16, at a current annual dividend rate of 13%.

"SATA will be the first listed security in the history of U.S. capital markets to pay cash dividends every single business day," CEO Matthew Cole said.

The update comes as Strive released its first-quarter earnings, where it also said it had completed its acquisition of fellow bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Semler Scientific. The deal was previously pitched as a "preferred-equity-only" model designed to avoid debt maturity risk.

Strive said it repurchased the remaining balance of its long-term notes during the quarter and now has "no short- or long-term debt outstanding." Strive also said it holds "zero encumbered Bitcoin."

The company disclosed total bitcoin holdings of 15,009 BTC, worth more than $1.22 billion as of May 12. The stash includes 6,001 BTC acquired during the first quarter — 5,048 BTC of that from the Semler acquisition — and another 1,381 BTC added so far in the second quarter.

This makes Strive the ninth biggest public bitcoin treasury firm, just slightly behind Riot Platforms.

Strive reported an unrealized net loss of nearly $266 million for the quarter, nearly all of which stemmed from markdowns on its bitcoin holdings. 

The company also disclosed a $50.5 million position in Strategy's STRC preferred shares, a similar bitcoin-linked offering to SATA, that Strategy has been using to finance the bulk of its own bitcoin buys.