Bitcoin’s (BTCUSD) brutal slide from its October 2025 peak near $126,000 to roughly $70,000 by early March 2026 hurt many investors. But one Wall Street firm thinks it has found an opportunity buried in that wreckage.
B. Riley Securities initiated coverage of Strive (ASST) with a “Buy” rating and a $12 price target on March 11. With shares trading around $9.32 that afternoon, the target implies roughly 30% upside.
The firm also slapped a “Buy” on Strategy (MSTR) with a $175 target. But it’s Strive, the younger, lesser-known name, that may carry the most room to run.
What Strive Does and Why the Bitcoin Crash Matters
Strive is a Dallas-based digital asset treasury company, or DATCO. That means its core mission is to accumulate Bitcoin and grow its Bitcoin per share over time. Think of it as a company that uses its balance sheet like a BTC savings vehicle.
Strive became a publicly traded company in September 2025, after completing a reverse merger with Asset Entities Inc. It was the first publicly traded Bitcoin treasury asset management firm of its kind.
The October-to-March BTC selloff hit DATCOs hard. As Bitcoin fell more than 45%, the “mNAV premiums,” the premium investors pay for DATCO shares relative to the underlying Bitcoin held, compressed sharply. In plain terms, the stock got cheaper relative to what the company actually owns.
B. Riley analyst Fedor Shabalin called this a “stress test” for the DATCO model. He believes the industry is now at an inflection point.
The Bull Case for Strive Stock
Shabalin outlined two key developments he believes will define the next chapter for DATCOs.
- The first is digital credit. Strive recently issued a preferred stock instrument called SATA, which currently pays a 12.75% annual dividend rate, after a 25-basis-point increase announced March 11, according to a company statement. Strive has also built up enough reserves to cover 18 months of SATA dividend payments. At current prices, its combined holdings of Bitcoin, cash, and preferred stock cover over 19 years of SATA’s interest obligations.
- The second shift is diversification beyond passive BTC buying. Strive completed the acquisition of Semler Scientific in early 2026, adding additional Bitcoin and a medical technology business to its portfolio.
As of March 9, Strive held approximately 13,311 BTC. It also purchased $50 million worth of Strategy’s own preferred instrument, STRC.
“We believe Digital Credit could be a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity,” Strive Chairman and CEO Matthew Cole said in a company statement.
Does ASST Stock Have More Upside Than MSTR?
B. Riley’s note argues that both MSTR and ASST are well-positioned to survive the current downturn, but that Strive has something Strategy doesn’t: room for multiple expansion.
Strategy has been doing this for six years. Strive has been a public company for roughly six months.
“ASST, given its short operating history as a DATCO, has meaningful room for multiple expansions as it builds a track record executing a strategy modeled on MSTR's playbook but with a higher-yielding preferred instrument,” the B. Riley note said.
Strive also manages more than $2 billion in assets under management across 13 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), collective investment trusts, and a direct indexing platform. That gives it a recurring, fee-based revenue stream most BTC treasury companies don't have.
Whether BTC finds its footing from here will matter a lot. But for income-oriented investors and those with a longer time horizon, B. Riley’s case is clear: Strive’s preferred stock offers a compelling yield, its balance sheet looks defensible, and its common equity, if the BTC thesis plays out, still has significant room to appreciate.
Both analysts covering ASST stock have a “Strong Buy” recommendation. The average ASST stock price target is $30, far above the current price of $9.30.
On the date of publication, Aditya Raghunath did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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