Shares in the marketing firm Asset Entities (ASST) rose 52% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after its shareholders approved a merger with Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive Enterprises to form a Bitcoin treasury company.
Asset Entities said on Tuesday that a “strong majority” of shareholders voted for the merger with plans to raise $1.5 billion to buy Bitcoin (BTC). The new company will be renamed to Strive, Inc. and continue trading under the ticker ASST.
Asset Entities shares closed trading on Tuesday up 17.8% at $6.28 and rallied over 52% after-hours to $9.55 on the company’s merger announcement.
Asset Entities rallied after-hours on Tuesday on news of its merger with Strive. Source: Google Finance
Matt Cole, the CEO of Strive Enterprise subsidiary Strive Asset Management, will lead the combined company, while Asset Entities CEO and president Arshia Sarkhani will serve as chief marketing officer and board member.
It isn’t clear what role Ramaswamy, Strive’s co-founder, will have in the newly merged company.
The new firm is the latest addition to the 186 public companies reporting large-scale Bitcoin buys, which has grown from less than 100 at the start of the year and sparked concerns of an oversaturated market.
Strive tries reverse-merger for $1.5 billion Bitcoin buys
The trend of public crypto-buying companies has fueled Bitcoin’s price rally to $124,450 as companies tap equity, convertible debt, perpetual stock, and, more recently, Special Purpose Acquisition mergers to fund their plans.
Strive opted for a reverse-merger structure, which is considered safer than the faster-paced SPACs as it relies less on speculative capital raises, dilution, and uncertain deal timelines.
Strive plans to fund its $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchases with $750 million from a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE), plus another $750 million that could come from the exercise of warrants issued in the PIPE.
The $1.5 billion planned raise would allow the company to buy 13,450 Bitcoin at current market prices, putting it in the top 10 largest corporate Bitcoin holding companies.
The merger’s closing is contingent upon certain…
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