Strive, Inc. CEO Matt Cole said Thursday that his company could end 2026 as the second-largest publicly traded corporate bitcoin holder, a claim that landed as ASST shares climbed to a year-to-date high of $26.84 on September 3, less than 1% below the approximately $27.00 exercise price on outstanding warrants. The stock pulled back to $26.47 at midday EDT, still within 2% of that threshold, a level that could trigger additional capital inflows the company has previously directed into bitcoin purchases.

The ambition is aggressive by almost any measure. Strive currently holds 23,156 BTC and sits sixth in the global corporate rankings, trailing Twenty One Capital (approximately 43,514 BTC), Tokyo-listed Metaplanet (approximately 43,000 BTC), MARA Holdings (approximately 38,689 BTC), and Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (approximately 30,021 BTC). Reaching second place would require Strive to add more than 20,000 BTC beyond its current position, increasing its holdings by nearly 90% in four months. Strategy, the undisputed leader with approximately 845,050 BTC or about 4% of the total 21 million bitcoin supply, is not a realistic target for any company in this cohort.

TD Cowen, one of five analysts covering ASST with a consensus "strong buy" rating, raised its year-end bitcoin holdings forecast for Strive to 27,156 BTC following the company's purchase of 1,800 BTC on August 31. That figure is nearly 4,300 BTC above the firm's prior estimate and reflects an improved outlook, but it still falls well short of the accumulation required to reach second place. The average analyst price target sits at $26.60. In comments paraphrased by CryptoBriefing, Cole has signaled the company could push well past 27,000 BTC before year-end, citing structural demand for scarce assets amid persistent inflation as a tailwind for the strategy.

Strive's accumulation pace has been notable. The company held approximately 14,557 BTC in late April 2026, added roughly 1,943 BTC by late May, crossed 19,900 BTC by mid-July, and reached its current level through two acquisitions in August alone totaling 2,910 BTC. The company went public through a reverse merger with Asset Entities in September 2025, a structure that allowed an exchange of bitcoin for equity under Section 351 of the U.S. tax code in a tax-efficient manner. Capital raises have relied heavily on PIPE financing (private investment in public equity) and warrant exercises. In Q3 2025, Strive raised $762.6 million through those instruments and deployed approximately $683 million of it into bitcoin.

One metric worth watching alongside raw BTC totals is bitcoin per diluted share, which accounts for the equity dilution that comes with repeated capital raises. BitcoinTreasuries.net pegs the current figure at 0.000204 BTC per diluted share. Analysis published by Insider Monkey noted that while Strive grew its BTC holdings by 5.5% in a recent reporting period, bitcoin per diluted share rose only 1.3%, a gap that reflects how aggressively the company is issuing new shares to fund purchases. For investors benchmarking a treasury company, that spread matters more than the headline BTC count.

Outside the United States, the Strive model is drawing attention from companies navigating very different regulatory environments. In South Africa, Altvest Capital became the first publicly listed African company to hold bitcoin as a treasury asset, following a path broadly similar to Strive's but at a fraction of the scale. TechCabal reported in June 2026 that African companies are increasingly exploring equity raises tied to bitcoin purchases, driven largely by the need to hedge against local currency depreciation. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded more than $205 billion in on-chain transaction volume between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52% year-on-year increase, suggesting significant grassroots demand even as institutional frameworks remain underdeveloped. Sygnia Limited's launch of its Life Bitcoin Plus Fund in June 2025, South Africa's first bitcoin ETF, illustrates how institutions are finding indirect exposure workarounds in the absence of direct treasury pathways. Pension funds and asset managers across the continent face unclear virtual asset licensing rules and custodial complications that make direct exposure difficult. In Southeast Asia, a consortium led by Sora Ventures and co-led by Simon Gerovich, with backing from UTXO Management, Kliff Capital, AsiaStrategy, and Moon Inc., is acquiring DV8 Public Company in Thailand using a reverse merger structure that mirrors Strive's entry into public markets, with the stated goal of creating the region's first publicly traded bitcoin treasury company.

The immediate on-chain catalyst to monitor is the warrant exercise threshold. If ASST trades above approximately $27.00 for a sustained period, the resulting capital raise could fund another round of BTC purchases and move Strive meaningfully up the corporate rankings. Whether that translates to second place by December 31 depends on whether competing firms hold their positions, whether Bitcoin's price trajectory continues to attract institutional capital, and whether Strive's financing machinery keeps pace with Cole's stated ambitions. For now, the gap between aspiration and analyst consensus is about 16,000 BTC wide.