Ramaswamy’s Strive Aims to Snag 75,000 BTC from Mt. Gox’s Crypto Carcass

Venture capital vultures—sorry, ’visionaries’—are circling Mt. Gox’s long-dormant bitcoin stash. Strive, led by Ramaswamy, just placed a bold bet on 75,000 BTC from the exchange’s infamous collapse.

The play? Either a masterstroke of distressed asset hunting or another case of ’throw institutional money at crypto and pray.’

Strive’s move could flood the market—or prove bitcoin’s resilience as the ultimate cockroach of finance. Either way, Wall Street’s playing with matches near gasoline again.

The Mt. Gox Mess, Explained

To understand this move, it helps to rewind to 2014. Mt. Gox was the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world, until it got hacked and collapsed, losing around 850,000 BTC. The fallout left thousands of users hanging, and for nearly a decade, they’ve been waiting for some kind of repayment through a complex legal process in Japan.

JUST IN: Vivek’s Strive Asset Management looking to buy up to 75,000 bitcoin from Mt. Gox claims at a discount to build Bitcoin treasury. pic.twitter.com/mPU5mu8OHj

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) May 21, 2025

That process is finally wrapping up, with creditors expected to recieve their payouts by October 31, 2025. Some will get cash, others will get crypto. But in the meantime, their legal claims, basically IOUs from the Mt. Gox estate, have become valuable in their own right.

Strive’s Game Plan

Strive has teamed up with a firm called 117 Castell Advisory Group to buy up those creditor claims before the repayment deadline. If successful, it could end up controlling claims linked to 75,000 BTC. That’s a huge haul, and Strive’s betting that it can get it at a discount.

Here’s how it works: claim holders get paid later, but they might be willing to sell now for a smaller amount of money upfront. Strive steps in, offers a deal, and takes the future payout. If Bitcoin’s price stays strong or rises, the firm ends up with significantly more value than it paid for.

It’s a smart play, but it comes with risk. These are distressed assets, after all, and delays or legal hiccups are always possible.

Going Public, Too

Strive isn’t just collecting Bitcoin claims. It’s also planning to go public through a reverse merger with Asset Entities, a media and tech firm already listed on the New York Stock Exchange. If the deal closes, Strive WOULD hold about 94 percent of the combined company and begin trading under the ASST ticker.

The merger is expected to give Strive more room to maneuver when it comes to holding Bitcoin, avoiding some of the headaches that come with a traditional IPO or SPAC.

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Still Needs a Green Light

Before the claim acquisition becomes official, shareholders will need to sign off. Strive plans to file paperwork with the SEC and send a voting proposal to investors. That step will likely happen in the coming weeks. Until then, the plan is still in motion but not locked in.

Why It Matters

This isn’t just a quirky investment story. It reflects how more traditional finance players are figuring out creative ways to enter the crypto space. Instead of buying Bitcoin outright, Strive is trying to capture it through distressed debt, something that’s more common in private equity circles than in crypto.

The strategy from Strive Asset Management shows how traditional firms are using distressed debt to gain exposure to crypto. If the deal works out, Strive could end up with one of the biggest Bitcoin holdings of any U.S. firm. And it wouldn’t have bought a single coin on the open market to get there.

Key Takeaways

• Strive Asset Management, co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, is pursuing 75,000 BTC through Mt. Gox creditor claims ahead of the 2025 repayment deadline.
• The firm is actively buying discounted claims from Mt. Gox creditors, aiming to profit when payouts are made in Bitcoin or cash later this year.
• Strive is partnering with 117 Castell Advisory Group to acquire the claims, using distressed debt tactics rarely seen in crypto investing.
• The company plans to go public via a reverse merger with Asset Entities, giving it more operational flexibility and a new NYSE ticker: ASST.
• If successful, the deal could make Strive one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders in the U.S., without buying any BTC on the open market.