Donald Trump-aligned fund manager Strive jumps into bitcoin — and Texas

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Strive Asset Management, a $1.7bn anti-woke company whose investors include vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and other top players in Donald Trump’s inner circle, is jumping into bitcoin for the first time as part of a new push into managing money for wealthy people.

Strive on Friday said it is hiring new wealth managers and relocating to Dallas from Columbus, Ohio, to better reach family offices and wealthy individuals in conservative-leaning Texas. The group’s current offerings include stock and bond funds, but it will soon integrate bitcoin into standard portfolios, it said.

Strive’s announcement underscores two themes foremost in the financial community of Trump supporters: bitcoin and Texas. Bitcoin’s price has recently hit all-time highs as Trump has talked up cryptocurrency. And the Lone Star State has become a top destination for the former president’s supporters such as Elon Musk, who relocated Tesla there. A new stock exchange shunning environmental, social and governance policies is launching in Dallas later this year.

Since it launched in 2022, Strive positioned itself as the go-to asset manager for anti-ESG enthusiasts. Founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for president and subsequently endorsed Trump, the company sought to counter what it considered “Woke Inc” in corporate boardrooms (after the title of Ramaswamy’s book), and the surge in ESG investing.

Its first product, an energy ETF with the ticker DRLL, pushed what it called a “post-ESG” mandate by investing in US fossil fuel companies (the fund has underperformed its benchmark over the past 12 months and since inception, according to Strive’s own fact sheet).

Ramaswamy has an advisory role with the company and remains its majority shareholder, according to regulatory filings. Vance’s Ohio-based venture investment firm Narya Capital was an early investor in Strive. Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman — both Trump supporters — also invested in Strive’s 2022 seed fundraising. Asset manager Cantor Fitzgerald has also been a big investor in the group and has a board seat at the firm. Cantor Fitzgerald’s chief executive, Howard Lutnick, is Trump’s transition team co-chair.

In an interview, Strive’s chief executive Matt Cole said the company is not exclusively anti-ESG. Instead, it is “leaning into unapologetic capitalism, maximising value for clients — period — without regard for all these different social or political issues”, he said.