Spot Bitcoin ETFs were supposed to be the main event. Matt Cole thinks they were just the opening act.

The CEO of Strive, a structured finance company focused on Bitcoin treasuries trading under the ticker ASST, is making a bold claim: “digital credit,” the umbrella term for yield-bearing preferred equity instruments issued by Bitcoin treasury companies, represents a larger opportunity than the ETF wave that dominated crypto headlines over the past two years. Cole pegs the addressable market at $3 trillion, roughly 1% of the $300 trillion global credit market.

What digital credit actually is

Bitcoin treasury companies, the ones hoarding BTC on their balance sheets, are now issuing preferred equity that pays dividends funded by their Bitcoin operations. Instead of just buying and holding Bitcoin, investors can buy structured products that generate income from those holdings.

Strive’s flagship product, SATA, delivers a 12.75% annualized dividend with daily payouts. Strategy and Semler’s competing product, STRC, yields approximately 11.5%. In a world where US Treasuries hover in the low single digits, double-digit yields from Bitcoin-backed instruments are going to turn heads.

The sector has already accumulated around $10 billion in less than a year.

Surviving the stress test

Digital credit products didn’t just grow during a bull market. They were stress-tested during one of Bitcoin’s nastier corrections.

Between October 2025 and February 2026, Bitcoin dropped roughly 50%, falling from approximately $126,000 to around $60,000. Digital credit products outperformed Bitcoin during that period. The preferred equity structure provides some insulation: preferred equity with a fixed dividend acts as a cushion when the underlying asset craters.

Cole has characterized this moment as an “iPhone moment” for Bitcoin treasuries, describing these as the first Bitcoin-native financial products that behave like traditional fixed-income instruments.

The ETF play and Semler acquisition

Strive filed for the T-Strive Digital Credit ETF, ticker DGCR, with expectations for it to become effective around mid-June 2026. The ETF would bundle preferred securities like SATA and STRC into a single tradeable wrapper.

Meanwhile, Strive bolstered its position by acquiring Semler Scientific, making it the first Bitcoin treasury company to acquire another public Bitcoin treasury business. The combined entity now holds approximately 16,500 BTC.

What this means for investors

The emergence of digital credit creates a new decision tree for anyone with Bitcoin exposure. Previously, the choice was simple: hold BTC directly, or hold it through an ETF. Now there’s a third option that offers income generation.

These products are ultimately backed by Bitcoin, which remains one of the most volatile major assets on the planet. A 12.75% yield sounds fantastic until you consider that the collateral can drop 50% in four months. If Bitcoin entered a prolonged bear market, dividend sustainability would come under serious pressure.

The digital credit market is currently dominated by a handful of issuers. Strive, Strategy, and Semler account for the bulk of the $10 billion in outstanding products.