Strive CEO Matt Cole: Bitcoin Has Become Corporate America's New Hurdle Rate

Strive CEO said he would continue buying Bitcoin even at $1 million and blamed delays to a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on lawmakers conflating Bitcoin.

• Matt Cole said Bitcoin has become the corporate "hurdle rate" companies should benchmark capital allocation decisions against.
• Cole argued it is "almost irresponsible" for corporations not to hold Bitcoin, citing currency debasement and AI disruption risks.
• Strive has accumulated more than 19,000 BTC as part of its treasury strategy, according to BitcoinTreasuries.Net.

Strive (ASST) CEO Matt Cole said that Bitcoin (BTC) has become a corporate "hurdle rate,” the benchmark companies should measure their capital's performance against, rather than traditional returns.

"Bitcoin is the hardest hurdle rate to beat," Cole said in a Bitcoin Magazine interview on Wednesday. "It's very volatile in the short term, and so the reason we can set it at a lower rate is that if you don't think you can beat Bitcoin, you should just buy Bitcoin,” he added.

The Strive CEO said this framework reshaped how companies should evaluate their own operations. He argued that a business generating steady profits should still ask whether continuing to run that business, rather than selling it and buying Bitcoin instead.