Strive CEO: Investors Should Short Dollars, Go Long Bitcoin

Strive CEO Bets on Gold and Bitcoin Over Dollar Amidst Monetary Concerns

Matt Cole, CEO of Strive, is making a bold argument that both gold and Bitcoin are poised to outperform the U.S. dollar, citing concerns over expanding money supply and escalating debt levels that he believes are eroding the dollar’s purchasing power.

Cole’s investment thesis, outlined for October 2026, places less emphasis on borrowing costs and more on Strive’s capacity to amplify its Bitcoin exposure without introducing risks that could jeopardize the strategy.

In a recent post on X, Cole drew a comparison between the annualized growth of gold and the U.S. M2 money supply, a broad measure encompassing cash, checking deposits, and other readily accessible forms of money. His data indicates that gold has returned an average of 9.0% annually since 1970, outperforming the M2’s 6.7% return. This divergence has reportedly widened in more recent periods. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, gold has yielded 9.5% annually compared to M2’s 6.3%. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, gold has seen an impressive annual gain of 18.3%, while M2 has grown by 6.5%.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, has demonstrated even more striking performance. Since 2020, the cryptocurrency has delivered an annualized return of 43.13% in the same comparative analysis. Cole has characterized Bitcoin as “digital gold” and a superior store of value, expressing his expectation that it will eventually surpass gold’s performance as it matures.

Bitcoin’s Market Performance and Future Outlook

At the time of this report, Bitcoin was trading near $83,000, marking an increase of over 1% in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency had been fluctuating within a range of approximately $80,700 to $82,800. However, recent market data reveals a more nuanced picture: a nearly 2% loss over the last seven days is offset by a similar gain over the past 30 days. CoinGecko data indicates that Bitcoin is down nearly 23% from a year ago and approximately 34% below its all-time high of over $126,000. The cryptocurrency also faces the backdrop of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meetings on October 27 and 28, with preliminary one-year inflation expectations from the University of Michigan survey showing an uptick to 4.7%, from 4.6%.

Strive’s Growing Bitcoin Holdings

Strive has been actively increasing its Bitcoin holdings. The firm disclosed on October 13 that it had acquired 3,311 BTC within a week, bringing its total holdings to 32,773 BTC. The following day, on October 14, Strive added another 2,822 BTC, raising its total to 35,595 BTC, which is valued at approximately $2.9 billion at current prices.

Challenges and Investment Strategy

Despite Strive’s bullish stance on Bitcoin, sentiment toward treasury companies is facing scrutiny elsewhere. MSCI recently finalized rules that could potentially lead to Strive’s exclusion from its major indexes, a development that saw the company’s stock price fall from a Thursday peak above $151 to below $137 by Friday’s close.

Cole’s overarching argument is that monetary debasement will persist as the debt crisis intensifies. He posits that the outperformance of scarce assets against the dollar could accelerate rather than decelerate, though he acknowledges this remains his investment thesis rather than a guaranteed outcome.

For Strive, Cole explained, the primary operational challenge lies in maintaining a high “Amplification Ratio”—the measure of how effectively the company’s structure can magnify Bitcoin’s performance—without exposing the business to detrimental financial risks. He believes investors tend to overemphasize the cost of capital and traditional fiat cash flows, overlooking a company’s capacity to sustain this amplification through liquidity.