Two developments this week point to the same underlying story: American institutional money is flowing deeper into crypto, whether through corporate balance sheets or through the venture capital backing prediction markets. On one side, publicly traded firms are racing to stack Bitcoin. On the other, a Trump family-linked investment firm is pouring fresh capital into a blockchain-based prediction platform, pushing its valuation to a new high. Together, the moves suggest that mainstream U.S. finance is treating crypto exposure less as a speculative bet and more as a core allocation strategy.
Strive Climbs the Corporate Bitcoin Ranks
Strive, the publicly traded asset manager and Bitcoin treasury company led by CEO Matt Cole, added another 1,800 BTC to its holdings last week, spending roughly $143 million at an average price near $79,400 per coin. The purchase, made between August 24 and August 28, lifted Strive's total stash to 23,156 BTC and pushed the firm past crypto exchange Bullish into fifth place among publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders, according to a Form 8-K filing and data from Bitcoin Treasuries.
It was Strive's second large purchase in as many weeks; the company had added 1,110 BTC just days earlier for about $81.5 million. Across the two weeks, Strive spent close to $224.5 million to add nearly 2,910 BTC to its treasury. Analysts at TD Cowen responded by raising their price target on Strive's common shares by more than 14%, citing accumulation activity that has outpaced their prior forecasts, and now project the company could end 2026 holding more than 27,000 BTC.
Strategy Returns to the Market
Strive wasn't buying alone. Michael Saylor's Strategy, the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder, resumed purchases for the first time in roughly ten weeks, acquiring 4,603 BTC at an average price of about $80,300. That purchase pushed Strategy's total holdings back above 845,000 BTC, following a stretch of several Bitcoin sales since May. The return of the sector's largest buyer, alongside Strive's aggressive pace, signals renewed corporate appetite for Bitcoin even as broader markets stayed cautious — Bitcoin itself held roughly the $78,000 level this week as rising U.S. Treasury yields tempered risk appetite across asset classes.
Polymarket's Valuation Jumps to $21 Billion
While corporate treasuries were adding Bitcoin, a different corner of the crypto economy saw an even larger capital event. 1789 Capital, the venture firm co-founded by Donald Trump Jr., is leading a $1 billion funding round in prediction market platform Polymarket that would value the company at approximately $21 billion — a roughly 40% jump from the $15 billion valuation it carried earlier this year. 1789 Capital is contributing about $300 million of the new round, adding to the roughly $200 million it had already invested, according to a spokesperson for the firm.
The new valuation would put Polymarket nearly on par with rival Kalshi, which was valued at $22 billion in a funding round in May. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, remains Polymarket's largest disclosed backer, having committed roughly $1.6 billion to the platform. The deal comes as prediction markets continue to draw regulatory scrutiny at the state level, even as the Trump administration and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have pushed to keep oversight of platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi at the federal level.
What It Means for the Market
Taken together, the two stories reflect a broader pattern: American capital — corporate, institutional, and political-adjacent — is expanding its footprint across crypto's different segments. Bitcoin treasury companies are competing for scale, betting that holding BTC on the balance sheet will pay off as the asset matures. Meanwhile, venture money is racing to back the platforms built on top of blockchain infrastructure, even in categories, like prediction markets, that remain legally contested. Neither trend guarantees future returns, and both carry the volatility crypto investors have come to expect. But for an industry that spent years fighting for legitimacy, the scale of capital now involved marks a clear shift in how seriously U.S. markets are taking it.
