Matt Cole has served as Chief Executive Officer of Strive, Inc. since April 2023 and has served as Chairman of the Board since September 2025. He previously served as Chief Investment Officer of Strive until October 2025.
Matt leads Strive as a Bitcoin treasury and structured finance company. Under his leadership, Strive has established a significant corporate Bitcoin treasury and has implemented a capital strategy focused on maximizing Bitcoin yield, using Bitcoin as the hurdle rate for all capital deployment decisions. The company’s approach reflects a disciplined focus on balance sheet construction, capital structure optimization, and long-term shareholder alignment.
Matt has positioned Strive at the forefront of innovation within the Bitcoin treasury sector. During his tenure, Strive became the second public company to introduce a publicly traded perpetual preferred equity instrument with the launch of SATA and successfully completed the acquisition of Semler Scientific, making Strive the first Bitcoin treasury company to acquire another publicly traded Bitcoin treasury business. These initiatives support the expansion of Strive’s Bitcoin holdings, the responsible scaling of institutional leverage, and broader market recognition of Bitcoin as a strategic corporate asset.
A long-time Bitcoin investor and advocate, Matt brings extensive institutional investment experience to Strive. Prior to joining the company, he spent approximately 15 years at CalPERS, where he served as a Portfolio Manager in global fixed income and oversaw more than $70 billion in actively managed fixed income assets. Portfolios under his leadership met or exceeded their benchmarks annually. His work at CalPERS included early research on the potential role of Bitcoin within institutional portfolios, based on its long-term return characteristics and its potential to hedge inflation, debt accumulation, technological disruption, and geopolitical risk.
Matt has also been active in advancing a shareholder-focused approach to corporate governance and fiduciary responsibility. His commentary on financial markets and Bitcoin has appeared in major media outlets, and he has participated as a guest on national business television and industry forums.
Matt is a CFA charterholder and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from California State University, Sacramento.
