BlackRock’s iShares Micro-Cap ETF, ticker IWC, added 79,805 shares of Strive Inc. to its portfolio, bringing total holdings to 213,713 shares valued at roughly $3M.
Strive, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker ASST, has built its corporate strategy around accumulating Bitcoin as a primary reserve asset. The company held over 19,864 BTC as of late June 2026, a treasury that makes it one of the more aggressive corporate Bitcoin accumulators in the micro-cap space.
What IWC actually is, and why this matters
The IWC is a passive fund. It tracks the Russell Microcap Index, holding somewhere between 1,278 and 1,385 stocks at any given time, with total assets exceeding $1.5B. BlackRock didn’t wake up one morning and decide Strive looked like a great buy. The fund’s methodology automatically includes companies that meet the index’s criteria.
Strive’s growth in market cap and trading activity has pushed it into the kind of index inclusion that funnels passive capital its way. The 80,000-share increase represents a substantial bump in exposure. At $3M in total value, it’s not going to move the needle for a $1.5B fund.
