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So, a stock co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy just went completely, utterly bonkers. Strive Asset Management, ticker ASST, shot up like a SpaceX reject, gaining something like 75% between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. And why? Because a guy on X (the platform formerly known as functional) with a lot of followers said he bought a million shares.
That’s it. That’s the story.
A single tweet from investor Mike Alfred, a firming bitcoin price, and a little nudge from the WallStreetBets crowd was all it took to turn a sub-dollar stock into the flavor of the week. The market, in its infinite wisdom, decided that a company trading for pennies was suddenly worth almost double that. Give me a break. We’re supposed to believe this is sound financial analysis and not just a bunch of people chasing a shiny object off a cliff.
This isn't investing; it's gambling on social media sentiment. It’s like watching a flock of birds suddenly change direction because one of them saw something glittery on the ground. The whole thing is a bottle rocket—a spectacular, fiery ascent that’s thrilling to watch but is guaranteed to end in a fizzle of smoke and disappointment. And you just know someone, probably a lot of someones, are going to be left holding the burnt-out stick when it all comes crashing down.
The Tweet Heard 'Round the Retail World
Let's dissect the catalyst here. On Friday, Mike Alfred posts on X that he scooped up over a million shares of ASST. He calls it "one of the most promising BTC Treasury companies globally trading at an attractive level.”
"Promising." "Attractive." These are the kinds of words you use to sell beachfront property in Nebraska. Just days before his tweet, ASST was trading below $0.80 a share—nearly 50% below the value of the bitcoin sitting on its own balance sheet. If it was so damn attractive, where was everyone then? Where was the stampede when it was on a clearance sale?
This is the playbook, folks. An influencer with a following builds a position, then announces it to the world with some vague, optimistic language. The herd follows, driving the price up. The WallStreetBets forum lights up with over 100 mentions, and suddenly, ASST stock is a trending topic. The FOMO machine kicks into high gear, and the stock goes parabolic. But what happens when the original tweeter decides his "attractive" position is now "attractively profitable" and decides to cash out? Who's left holding the bag then?
It ain’t the guy with the million shares, I can tell you that. It’s the person who bought in on Monday morning at the peak, mesmerized by the green candle on their screen, thinking they’d discovered the next big thing. This isn't a discovery; it's the final scene of the party right before the lights come on.
A Merger Nobody Wanted… Until They Did
Here’s the part that really gets me. The part that proves none of this is based on anything resembling logic. Just a month ago, Strive announced it was acquiring Semler Scientific (SMLR) in an all-stock deal. This was billed as the first-ever merger of two publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies.
And how did Wall Street react to this "promising" and "historic" news? They hated it. Offcourse they did. Both ASST and SMLR stocks got hammered. The market took one look at the deal—a deal that valued Semler at a ridiculous 210% premium—and ran for the hills. They saw it for what it was: a weird, desperate-looking move.
So what changed? Did the fundamentals of the merger magically improve over the weekend? Did some secret synergy reveal itself in a puff of smoke? No. A guy tweeted. That’s literally it.
The market went from hating this deal to loving it in the span of a few weeks, with the only new variable being a social media post and some Reddit chatter. This is a bad sign. No, "bad" doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm fire of irrational exuberance. It shows a market completely detached from reality, driven by hype cycles that last about as long as a TikTok video. And they expect us to take this seriously, to analyze the charts and... I don't even know what. It's just noise.
The fact that SMLR shares also jumped 18% on the news just adds another layer of absurdity, as noted in reports like Strive (ASST) Adds another 30%, While Buyout Target Semler (SMLR) Gains 18%. Its value is now pegged to the inflated, meme-fueled price of ASST stock. Does anyone actually understand the math of this deal anymore, or are we all just cheering because the numbers are going up?
So, You're Telling Me This Is Stable?
Look, I get the appeal. You see a stock like ASST go up 75% and you feel like you’re missing out. You see the Reddit threads and the Stocktwits posts, and you want to be part of the winning team. But this isn't a team. It's a stampede. And stampedes always end with someone getting trampled. The foundation for this price surge is made of sand, built on a single tweet and a mob mentality. When the tide of hype goes out, and it always does, don't be surprised to find nothing left underneath. Don't get burned.