Strive Jumps 5% as CEO Declares the Bitcoin Bear Market Over, Strategy and Bitmine Rise 3%

David Moadel

Mon, August 24, 2026 at 4:34 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

Matt Cole declared the Bitcoin bear market over after BTC broke out against the dollar and gold simultaneously, lifting Strive 5% and Strategy 3%.
Strategy raised over $2 billion selling shares without touching its 840,447 Bitcoin, parking $1.57 billion in a new unrestricted cash account.
SharpLink's institutional ownership jumped 12 points to 60% while the Bitcoin miner ETF slid 2% and sits down 20% over the past month.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and MicroStrategy didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Strive (NASDAQ:ASST) stock is up 5% to $19.09 in early Monday trading after CEO Matt Cole declared the Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) bear market over, with Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) stock up 3% to $123.05 and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE:BMNR) stock up 3% to $23.50. Also, SharpLink (NASDAQ:SBET) stock is climbing 2% to $8.10 as the treasury complex moves together.

24K-Production / Shutterstock.com

Bitcoin is up 2% over the past 24 hours to $78,987.45, and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) is up 2% to $2,508.83 on the same tape. However, the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining and Digital Power ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) is down 2% to $45, and the fund was down 20% over the past month through Friday's close. Miners and treasury vehicles are moving in opposite directions today.

Cole's Bear Market Call Ignites Treasury Names

Cole cited Bitcoin's breakout against both the U.S. dollar and gold in the same week when he stated, "My conviction is very strong that the Bitcoin bear market is over." Strive holds 20,246 Bitcoin at an average cost of $94,345, ranking seventh among public company holders. The position sits at an unrealized loss against current spot, so a durable move higher directly repairs Strive's balance sheet.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and MicroStrategy didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Director Pierre Rochard disclosed a Form 4 purchase of 15,900 Strive shares at a weighted average of $12.54, his initial direct equity position in the company. Strive stock had already climbed 48% over the past week through Friday's close, so Rochard's buy landed before this momentum leg. The insider filing pairs with Cole's public sentiment reset to underline management alignment with shareholders.

Strategy Raises $2 Billion Without Touching Bitcoin

Strategy filed an 8-K Monday disclosing it raised over $2 billion selling 18,261,118 shares last week at an average of $109.88, without selling any Bitcoin. Of the proceeds, $136.4 million repurchased STRC preferred stock, $300 million went to the dollar reserve, and $1.57 billion funded a newly created account called USD Cash. That account stood at $1.59 billion as of August 23.

Strategy's Bitcoin holdings remained at 840,447 coins, acquired at an average of $75,385. USD Cash carries no restriction and is intended to let management respond faster to market dislocations, unlike the existing $5.1 billion USD Reserve earmarked for preferred dividends and debt interest. That funding mechanic, equity issued at a NAV premium and redeployed into cash and coin, is what separates Strategy stock from the miners.

Miners Diverge as ETH Treasuries Rally

SharpLink disclosed institutional ownership rose 12 percentage points to 60%, with Fidelity, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, State Street and Invesco among holders. The company joined the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes in June and generates returns from staking its Ethereum treasury of 888,938 ETH as of early August. Bitmine Immersion Technologies is the largest corporate Ethereum holder with more than 3.73 million ETH on its balance sheet, and it moves alongside SharpLink stock on the same ETH tailwind.

The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining and Digital Power ETF's slide while Bitcoin climbs captures the day's real split. Treasury vehicles finance themselves by issuing equity into strength and buying coins, while miners depend on hashrate economics and power costs that compress when coin prices lag. That divide is why the treasuries are trading as levered coin proxies today, and the miners are trading as operating businesses under pressure.

What to Watch Into the Close

Traders can watch for whether Bitcoin holds above $78,000 through the U.S. session, since that level anchors Cole's breakout thesis. Follow-through in Strategy stock and Strive stock will confirm the treasury bid, and a reversal in Bitcoin would test the funding mechanic that keeps these vehicles above their coin NAV. Strive's next scheduled earnings release and any additional Form 4 activity are the near-term catalysts to keep tabs on.

The broader tape supports caution. Bitcoin was down 11.6% year to date through the latest snapshot, and Ethereum was down 17.2% over the same window, so today's rally rebuilds rather than extends the prior trend. A single strong session doesn't confirm Cole's bear market call, and any of these treasury names can retrace quickly if coin momentum stalls into the afternoon.

Position sizing matters here. Strive stock and SharpLink stock carry small-cap volatility layered on top of crypto exposure, and Strategy stock trades at a persistent premium to its Bitcoin NAV (we wrote a whole free playbook on speculating with just 5% of a portfolio, here). Investors should consider keeping their position sizes modest and matching exposure to their tolerance for coin-price swings, especially with the miner ETF flashing that not every crypto equity moves with the coin.