Bitcoin Policy Institute's Quarterly Report for Q2 is live. You can read about our latest investigative research on CCP influence, our meetings with Taiwan’s central bank, Bitcoin’s role in two Armed Services committee hearings, the fight for dev protections in CLARITY, and much more. Attached below is the executive summary. You can access the full report here:

For August, we have elected to maintain SATA’s dividend rate at 13.0%. We are often asked how we determine the rate, so I wanted to share a little more about the considerations that go into making the decision. At Strive, we do not make these decisions based solely on SATA’s trading price. Each month, we assess the market from several angles. We look at SATA’s recent trading activity and liquidity, as well as market-positioning indicators such as short interest. We also compare its effective yield and spread to similar securities, evaluate Bitcoin’s recent trading activity (which has been near the lows of the current cycle), and consider the broader macro and capital markets environment. That includes the status of ongoing global conflicts, recent IPO activity, and other factors that may affect both investor sentiment and the demand for capital. No single data point determines the outcome. We consider the breadth of information available to us and weigh those factors together, with the objective of supporting healthy demand, durable liquidity, and stable trading around SATA’s $100 stated amount over the long term. Based on our analysis, we concluded maintaining the 13.0% dividend rate was the appropriate decision for August. $SATA $ASST

Welcome Back to The Hurdle Rate Episode 65: Shifting Institutional In this week’s Hurdle Rate, the crew opens with updates from Strategy, Strive, and the digital credit market before recapping the major developments from Q2. We cover Strategy’s growing cash reserve, market feedback, and the evolution of Bitcoin-backed credit. We also explore institutional adoption, structured products, AI, intellectual property, and the limits of government intervention in the debt crisis. We close it off with thoughts on outdated financial systems and Bitcoin’s expanding role in traditional capital markets. Here's the latest with @TimKotzman, @ColeMacro, @PunterJeff, and @Werkman. Time Stamps: 0:00 - Welcome to The Hurdle Rate 5:19 - Digital Credit During Quiet Markets 8:01 - Strategy Rebuilds Its Cash Reserve 11:51 - Market Uncertainty And Bullish Catalysts 17:21 - STRC And Convertible Debt 19:37 - AI, The Fed, And Protecting IP 24:14 - The U.S. Debt Crisis 31:39 - Bitcoin-Backed Institutional Credit 35:30 - Building Structured Bitcoin Products 43:12 - Growing Institutional Bitcoin Interest 48:02 - Stablecoins And Outdated Settlements 53:05 - Bitcoin Stewardship And Constructive Engagement 58:29 - Closing Thoughts

Today, Strive paid a cash distribution of $0.0493 per $SATA share. The daily dividend represents an annualized rate of $13 per $SATA share and an effective yield of 13.3% as of the latest market close. This payment marks the 25th consecutive dividend to shareholders.

On the filter fork topic. I don't usually have time, but this morning listened to one of the twitter spaces from earlier in the week, with some well meaning relative bitcoin newcomers, that humanized them, and their concerns and thoughts for why they thought that made it logical to support 110. My feeling after listening, is if these are the people with #110# in their handles, I'm sad to see them about to fork off and get disillusioned without understanding why bitcoin rejected 110 robustly. So here's a more empathetic, constructive higher level version of explaining why not. I hope it's high-level and first-principles enough that everyone can follow. They seem to want to understand what makes people tick, and are suspicious of intent. So, if someone asked me why is Bitcoin important and what is it, I'd say my (personal) mission and hope for bitcoin is to build the cypherpunk future, that "Snow Crash" was a blueprint, and work backwards from there. Bitcoin I hope leads to fully free markets via bearer unseizable, hard mathematically dependable money. Not everyone is comfortable with that level of freedom, but that's my view. And at this point, I believe that surprisingly, even now many governments have come to understand and value bitcoin's gold-like mathematical assurance, a positive development. Others may have milder views than myself, but still like hard censorship resistant money. Because of motive suspicion, if it's not obvious: I hate spam with a passion, that's how I came to design hashcash while researching decentralized bearer money with others, and running nodes in privacy related cypherpunk p2p networks nearly three decades ago. People seem upset about the default op return policy change in bitcoin. I will just assert, there are extremely robust and simple reasons for bitcoin changing default relay policy, and most just didn't do their research, so don't know what those are, or maybe not technical enough to fully understand though there have been 1000s of posts trying to explain in various simplified ways. So that lack of understanding lends itself to shared build-up of false narratives. So here's my back-to-basics higher level explanation. The decentralization needed to create cypherpunk money has implications a: side effect of decentralization is that you can't impose your views on others. The very decentralization mechanism that helps that, is working against what BIP 110 wants, which at it's most basic is a quest to police other people. I understand supporters don't see their intent like that, but introspect deeper. You can modify your software, but not anyone else's. Another critical and incredibly robust technical bitcoin immune system is bitcoin can't have people who don't understand technology basics insist on eroding security, decentralization robustness and core properties. That would end badly, fast, and so people will fight you on that. So the message is Bitcoin respectfully says "no" to what you want. Sorry, and bitcoiners do genuinely understand and empathize that you mean well, have high level thoughts that make emotional sense, and articulate sensible bitcoin-defensive high level ideas, but they are not grounded and without you seeing it, the way you propose to achieve your ideas, hard-conflict with free cypherpunk permissionless money. My advice is to listen to more experienced people who understand the system and why it works the way it does, to whatever detail you want to understand the grounded reasons for why this is the implication of decentralization and cypherpunk money. I guarantee you the developer and protocol ecosystem shares and exceeds your views on bearer hard money (and dislike of spam). You may not agree with individual developers choices, views, way of expressing themselves etc, BUT you also need to understand the IETF-like decentralized technical consensus process creates a protective change resistance, that is highly effective at protecting bitcoin mission. The implication of which is no developer can change anything without technical consensus from hundreds of other developers and protocol observers who are pedantic and extremely knowledgeable clever people who won't let any unaddressed technical question past. The protective change resistance is robust and decentralized in an amplifying way because of this technical consensus. And the many highly technical mainline developers' cypherpunk mission mindsets are probably far more determined than you can even handle on clarity of understanding and views about freedoms on permissionless networks, as many of you are probably still subconsciously inured by the matrix, where they have transcended that, and grew up immersed in it decades ago. They think natively in this space, while you are just grappling with the surface. Many wont have internalized or have the experience to know how this internet physics works, where there is no policeman, no policy authority, just mathematics, free market and hard money. That has implications for your views also, unfortunately. Now the tough pill, which is unfortunately true: If you won't listen to reason, educate yourself, learn, the same radical freedom applies to you: your permissionless recourse is to club together and create a fork. But bitcoin won't be joining it. (With respect and no sleight intended.) Please rejoin bitcoin now, or later if you're not convinced and need to experience 110 forking off and fizzling for yourself to start that journey of introspecting and learning. It would be sad if bitcoin lost people disillusioned due to simple lack of understanding of what's going on there, we're all trying to defend bitcoin and keep it on mission. Including btw the 110 technical promoters, just they wandered off plot somehow. Join the cypherpunks on bitcoin, come cypherpunk summer🌞 in a few weeks.

Digital Credit is NOT done evolving. This is V1. Changes & improvements are inevitable. "We're trying to minimize the volatility to the maximum extent possible. Have $SATA trade at $100 the maximum amount of days for the maximum amount of time that we possibly can..." @ColeMacro

A discussion between @macroleverageTP, @PhongLe, and me on why Bitcoin Treasury Companies exist, what the first real stress test for Digital Credit taught us, and the opportunity ahead for Bitcoin-backed financial innovation. TIMESTAMPS 0:04 - Why Bitcoin Treasury Companies Exist 7:22 - Financial Engineering Vs. Financial Innovation 14:24 - What Makes Bitcoin Treasury Companies Durable 18:42 - Does Bitcoin Need Treasury Companies? 22:20 - Addressing Bitcoin Treasury Company Criticism 26:46 - Growing Demand For Bitcoin-Backed Products 30:11 - What Has Surprised The CEOs Most 36:06 - The Evolution Of Digital Credit Products 45:10 - Lessons From The First Market Stress Test 53:10 - Bitcoin Market Depth And Liquidity 55:21 - Why Selling Bitcoin Is Not A Contradiction 1:03:37 - The Future Of Bitcoin Treasury Companies $MSTR $ASST $STRC $SATA $BTC

In 2025, I initially joined @SemlerSci (acquired by @Strive) because a public company Bitcoin treasury was the first structure I’ve seen where borrowing capital to buy more Bitcoin and amplify exposure actually made economic sense. Bitcoin + short duration debt is dangerous.

SATA Share Lending Information If your SATA shares are loaned out when a distribution is paid, you may receive a replacement payment, known as a “payment in lieu,” from the short seller instead of the actual distribution from Strive. The dollar amount may be the same, but the tax treatment is different. A payment in lieu does not receive return of capital treatment and does not reduce your cost basis in SATA. You may also see payments referred to as manufactured dividends, substitute payments, or dividend equivalent payments. If you want to receive the actual SATA distribution and its associated return of capital tax treatment, check with your broker to confirm that your shares are not being loaned out. Please always consult your tax advisor regarding your individual tax circumstances. $SATA

I joined @kornelijalaura at the @xapobankapp Conference in London on July 1 for a fireside chat on Bitcoin as Digital Capital, the emergence of Digital Credit, and the path to Bitcoin-backed Digital Money. Fix the money, fix the world. $BTC 00:42 — Bitcoin below $60K and the mission: “Fix the money, fix the world” 01:27 — Bitcoin as the dominant Digital Capital network and the next great digital transformation 02:55 — Bitcoin Dominance approaching 69–70% and why “the flippening” debate is over 04:21 — The next layers: Digital Credit and Digital Money built on Bitcoin 06:56 — Strategy as an institutional gateway: attracting $64–65B into Bitcoin across equity, derivatives, credit, and money markets 12:28 — $STRC: bitcoin-backed preferred equity designed to create asset-backed Digital Credit 15:33 — The $STRC breakthrough: potential tax-deferred credit dividends backed by unrealized Bitcoin gains 18:18 — Digital Credit on Digital Capital: the killer app of a $50B bitcoin-backed balance sheet 19:48 — Digital Money: zero-volatility, fiat-pegged, yield-bearing bitcoin-backed assets 22:32 — Stress testing $STRC through deeper Bitcoin drawdowns 25:51 — $STRC vs. Bitcoin in the bear market: stripping ~90% of Bitcoin’s downside volatility 27:04 — Transparent Digital Credit: modeling risk from Bitcoin price and volatility every 15 seconds 30:34 — The builder roadmap: “If you want to make money, make the money” 32:27 — $STRC, $SATA, and the credit layer behind bitcoin-backed Digital Money 36:20 — Wrapping Digital Money as accounts, funds, public products, or tokens 41:27 — Creating Digital Credit on Digital Capital, then Digital Money on Digital Credit 43:00 — 2026 headwinds: geopolitics, the Fed, AI capital rotation, and digital asset regulation 44:54 — Potential catalysts: $STRC returning to par, Digital Credit reaccelerating, and capital flowing back to Digital Capital 46:01 — Why current market conditions may be a strong entry point for Digital Money builders

Today, Strive paid a cash distribution of $0.0493 per $SATA share. The daily dividend represents an annualized rate of $13 per $SATA share and an effective yield of 13.5% as of the latest market close. This payment marks the 23rd consecutive dividend to shareholders.

Is The Fed Lying About Inflation? | @jameslavish We discuss: - Kevin Warsh & the Feds next move - The inflation lie - The economic impact of AI - What the macro outlook means for Bitcoin Watch it here:

JUST IN: Strive $ASST CEO Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) just said, "Strategy $MSTR could become the largest company in the world if our #Bitcoin# bull thesis plays out. They're building for the long term." "Zoom out and look at the bigger picture." 🔥🚀

Today, Strive paid a cash distribution of $0.0493 per $SATA share. The daily dividend represents an annualized rate of $13 per $SATA share and an effective yield of 13.4% as of the latest market close. This payment marks the 22nd consecutive dividend to shareholders.