New 2x leveraged Bitcoin ETF actually tracks Strive stock, not BTC

Wall Street’s fascination with corporate Bitcoin treasuries just got another layer of complexity. REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management have rolled out a new fund that lets traders bet on double the daily moves of Strive, one of the largest public companies stacking Bitcoin on its balance sheet — and the launch is reviving a familiar question: what exactly counts as a 2x leveraged Bitcoin ETF, and what doesn’t?

Key takeaways

• REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management launched the T-REX 2X Long ASST Daily Target ETF, ticker ASSX, which began trading September 18 on Cboe.
• ASSX targets 200% of the daily performance of Strive’s Nasdaq-listed stock (ASST), not Bitcoin itself, with leverage resetting every session.
• Strive’s latest SEC filing shows the company holding 25,000 BTC after buying 469 Bitcoin between September 8 and 11 at an average price of $77,954 per coin.
• The fund carries a 1.5% total expense ratio, with Tuttle Capital Management as adviser and REX Shares as sponsor.
• REX warns that a single-day adverse move of more than 50% in ASST could wipe out an investor’s entire principal.

REX Shares launches a 2X leveraged ETF on Strive stock

ASSX gives traders a way to amplify short-term swings in Strive without opening a margin account or trading options directly. The fund started trading on Friday, September 18, on Cboe, three days after the exchange filed a certification with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirming its approval for listing and registration.

REX Shares described the product as “the first ETF in the U.S. offering 2x daily long exposure to ASST,” according to crypto.news. The fund’s official page lists a 1.5% total expense ratio, with Tuttle Capital Management acting as adviser and REX Shares serving as sponsor.

Fund targets 200% of ASST’s daily performance

The mechanics are straightforward on paper: ASSX seeks 200% of Strive’s daily share performance before fees and expenses. REX’s own risk disclosure notes that a 1% daily decline in ASST would translate into roughly a 2% decline in the fund before financing costs and other operating expenses kick in.

Listed on Cboe alongside other leveraged crypto-linked products

ASSX isn’t an isolated experiment. REX and Tuttle already run 2x long ETFs tied to Strategy, BitMine, Circle, Cipher Mining and SharpLink, along with BTCL, a separate 2x daily product tracking spot Bitcoin directly. ASSX slots into that lineup as the entry tied specifically to Strive’s common stock rather than to Bitcoin’s price.

How ASSX differs from a spot Bitcoin ETF

This is not a Bitcoin fund wearing a leverage label — it’s a leveraged bet on a company whose valuation happens to be closely tied to Bitcoin. ASSX does not hold Bitcoin, and it does not attempt to deliver twice Bitcoin’s daily price change. Its reference asset is Strive’s common stock, which is itself shaped by Bitcoin prices, the premium investors assign to the company’s treasury, and Strive’s ability to raise fresh capital to keep buying coins.

That distinction matters for anyone searching for a 2x leveraged Bitcoin ETF and stumbling onto ASSX by mistake. Fund shareholders don’t get voting rights or distributions tied to Strive shares, and REX’s disclosure is explicit that investing in ASSX is not the same as buying ASST outright. The issuer says the fund can use derivatives, including swap agreements, to build its leveraged exposure — and that counterparty conditions, liquidity and daily rebalancing can all prevent the fund from hitting its stated 2x target.

Daily reset and compounding risk

Leverage resets after every session, which means returns held over multiple days won’t simply equal 200% of Strive’s cumulative move. Compounding cuts both ways, and it becomes especially punishing when the underlying stock whips back and forth. Consider a stock that rises 10% one day and falls 10% the next — it ends roughly 1% below where it started. A theoretical 2x daily product tracking that same stock, moving 20% and then 20% in the opposite direction, would finish closer to 4% lower before fees and other tracking effects, according to FinanceFeeds.

REX’s own materials go further, warning that an adverse ASST move exceeding 50% in a single trading day could erase an investor’s entire principal. The issuer positions ASSX for knowledgeable investors who monitor positions frequently — not as a buy-and-hold substitute for owning Strive shares.

Strive’s Bitcoin treasury drives the stock story

None of this leverage matters much without the underlying volatility Strive already carries. The company’s latest Bitcoin holdings filing showed 25,000 BTC as of September 11, after a Form 8-K disclosed the purchase of 469 Bitcoin between September 8 and 11 at an average price of $77,954 per coin, including fees. That lifted holdings from 24,531 BTC the week before.

The same filing put Strive’s cash and cash equivalents at $204.2 million, alongside 505,000 Strategy STRC preferred shares valued at roughly $49.813 million. Strive’s Chairman and CEO, Matt Cole, said in a public statement that “100% of the capital raised came from SATA,” the company’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, adding that the instrument had passed $1 billion in notional value outstanding.

SATA financing fuels continued Bitcoin buying

Instead of relying exclusively on issuing common stock, Strive has turned increasingly to SATA sales as a way to fund its Bitcoin acquisitions — an approach designed to grow the treasury while limiting dilution for common shareholders. During the period, outstanding SATA preferred shares increased by 402,541 to reach 10,397,966, and effective common shares grew by 34,206 to total 94,968,764.

The 469-BTC purchase followed a 1,375-BTC buy for roughly $109 million the prior reporting week, and a 1,800-BTC purchase for about $143 million in late August that pushed Strive to 23,156 BTC and fifth place among public corporate Bitcoin holders at the time. BitcoinTreasuries.net currently lists Strive as the fifth-largest public company by reported Bitcoin holdings, trailing Strategy, Twenty One Capital, Metaplanet and MARA Holdings.

This matters for anyone weighing ASSX: the ETF magnifies more than Bitcoin’s price swings. It magnifies movements in a stock whose valuation already bakes in assumptions about SATA demand, future purchases, capital issuance and the premium the market assigns to Strive’s treasury strategy.

Risks and considerations for investors in ASSX

Strive shares themselves aren’t exactly calm. ASST closed at $30.09 on September 18, up 6.4% for the session after trading between $29.33 and $30.38, with roughly 16.1 million shares changing hands, according to crypto.news. That followed a 3.17% gain the day before, when the stock closed at $28.28. FinanceFeeds noted the closing price sat slightly above the $29.40 average 12-month analyst price target.

ASSX’s own debut was comparatively quieter. The fund opened at $27.78, traded between $27.22 and $28.70, and closed its first session at $28.27 on reported volume of 123,946 shares; after-hours data later showed it near $28.71.

Tuttle Capital Management’s CEO, Matt Tuttle, offered a blunt description of the appeal, saying “ASST moves, and it moves with bitcoin,” while framing the product’s intended use around one-day positions. That’s the sponsor’s read on how the underlying stock behaves — the fund’s formal objective still tracks ASST’s daily share performance, not Bitcoin’s.

Taken together, the risks stack up in layers: leverage effects from the daily reset, concentration risk from betting on a single stock, and exposure to Strive’s broader corporate and financing decisions on top of whatever Bitcoin itself is doing. Demand for this kind of instrument isn’t hypothetical, either — a comparable 2x ETF tied to BitMine has already drawn hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, according to FinanceFeeds, suggesting appetite for leveraged, Bitcoin-adjacent equity products is far from niche.

ASSX is best read as a signal of where the Bitcoin treasury trade is heading next: investors can now choose between spot Bitcoin ETFs, the treasury companies themselves, preferred securities those companies issue, and leveraged wrappers built on top of the common stock. Each layer adds a different mix of reward and risk, and ASSX simply makes explicit how many degrees of separation now sit between a portfolio and the Bitcoin it’s ultimately chasing.

FAQ

What does the ASSX ETF track?

ASSX tracks the daily performance of Strive’s stock, not the price of Bitcoin directly.

Is the ASSX ETF a leveraged Bitcoin ETF?

No. ASSX is a 2x leveraged ETF on Strive’s stock — a company holding Bitcoin — rather than a leveraged product on Bitcoin itself.

What risks are involved with investing in ASSX?

Risks include daily resetting leverage that can cause returns to diverge from expectations over time, single-stock concentration, and exposure to Strive’s corporate and Bitcoin treasury factors.

Where is the ASSX ETF listed for trading?

ASSX is listed on the Cboe exchange, while Strive’s underlying shares continue trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ASST.

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Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.