ASST Borrow Dries Up as Shorts Rebuild

ASST — Strive, Inc. — has doubled its share price in a month while shorts quietly rebuild and the borrow market has gone completely dry, creating one of the more charged setups in the small-cap space right now.

The lending picture is the most striking data point this week. Availability has collapsed to zero — every share in the lending pool is currently out on loan, matching the 52-week tightest reading. That compares to roughly 12% available at the start of September and 24% in late August. The cost to borrow has followed availability lower, climbing to 2.25% — up 30% on the week and 63% over the past month. These are still moderate absolute rates, but the direction is clear: new shorts are finding it progressively harder to establish positions. With short interest rising 19% over the past week to 3.7% of free float, and nearly 22 million shares short, bearish positioning is building even as borrowable supply evaporates.

Options traders are not positioned defensively. The put/call ratio is running at 0.11, well below its 20-day average of 0.12, and nowhere near the 52-week high of 1.98 that marked the last spike in hedging demand. The z-score is essentially flat. That means options flow is firmly skewed toward calls — investors are expressing bullish views through the derivatives market even as the borrow market tightens. The two signals point in different directions: shorts are adding to positions while the options market remains dominated by bulls.

The Street is uniformly positive on direction if not on price. All recent analyst actions carry Buy ratings — B. Riley raised its target from $16 to $26 on September 3, a meaningful upward revision. HC Wainwright trimmed its target slightly to $36 in August, and TD Cowen lowered to $28 in July, both while maintaining Buy. The consensus mean target is $29.40, a modest premium to the current $26.90 close. The bull case centres on Strive's Bitcoin treasury strategy and its track record of accumulating BTC holdings. The bear case is well-articulated: Bitcoin price volatility, capital-raising risk, shareholder dilution, and limited operating history are the core concerns. The company carries a negative PE and negative EV/EBITDA — it is not a fundamentals story, it is a Bitcoin proxy story. The ORTEX short score has drifted to 72.3, near the top of its recent range, reflecting the tightening borrow and rising short interest.

The institutional register adds colour. FMR (Fidelity) is the largest holder at 11.6% of shares, having added 2.7 million shares as of June 30. BlackRock added 1.6 million shares to reach a 6.2% stake as of August 31. Vivek Ramaswamy, a name closely associated with Strive's founding ideology, holds 6.7% with no recent change. Jane Street built a position of 3.3% as of June 30, adding 1.8 million shares — notable given Jane Street's typical market-making role. The stock has posted a gain of roughly 116% over the past month and sits just under 0.3% higher on the week, a marked deceleration after that parabolic move.

Historical earnings reactions have been mild. The last four prints produced one-day moves of +1.1%, +0.3%, -3.3%, and -0.1% respectively, with five-day drifts averaging around 5-6% higher in each case. No next earnings date is currently scheduled.

The watch item is straightforward: how the tug-of-war between a fully exhausted borrow market and aggressive call-side options flow resolves — and whether the cost to borrow escalates further as shorts looking to add face a lending pool with nothing left in it.