Strive shares fall 12% after all-stock deal to acquire Semler Scientific

Strive’s stock fell about 12% on Tuesday after the asset manager, co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, announced an all-stock deal to acquire Semler Scientific that will significantly expand its Bitcoin holdings.

The company said it has secured shareholder approval for the acquisition, which would add Semler’s 5,048.1 Bitcoin to Strive’s existing treasury and bring Strive’s total holdings to 12,797.9 BTC. Strive also disclosed the purchase of an additional 123 Bitcoin for its corporate treasury, lifting its standalone holdings to 7,749.8 BTC.

Strive said it plans to monetize Semler’s operating business and pursue steps to retire existing obligations, including a $100 million convertible note and a $20 million loan from Coinbase, subject to market conditions. The merger includes a 1-for-20 reverse stock split of the combined company’s Class A and Class B common shares, which would reduce the number of shares outstanding.

The move follows volatile market reactions to corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies: after Strive announced its Bitcoin strategy on May 7 its shares surged to a May 22 peak before reversing and were trading at about $0.97 at the time of reporting. Semler experienced a similar rise-and-retrace pattern, and observers have pointed to other firms such as Metaplanet as examples of longer-term retracements after initial gains.

Key Topics

Crypto, Strive, Semler Scientific, Vivek Ramaswamy, Bitcoin, Coinbase