USDStrategy Pauses Bitcoin Buying as BitMine Nears Ethereum Supply Target
Treasury companies take different paths as capital management and accumulation strategies diverge
TL;DR
- Strategy sold common shares but neither bought nor sold Bitcoin during its latest reporting week, while expanding its U.S. dollar reserve.
- BitMine Immersion added more Ethereum and brought its holdings to roughly 4.8% of the network’s total supply.
- Both companies also used capital for securities repurchases as their crypto treasury strategies expanded beyond asset accumulation alone.
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Strategy kept its Bitcoin holdings unchanged while raising cash through common-stock sales during the week ended Aug. 16, 2026, while BitMine Immersion continued its weekly Ethereum purchases and moved closer to its stated goal of owning 5% of ETH supply. The developments, released Aug. 17, showed Strategy directing new capital toward dividends, securities repurchases and cash reserves as BitMine continued adding ETH and buying back its own shares.
Strategy disclosed in an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it sold 3,458,866 MSTR shares from Aug. 10 through Aug. 16 for approximately $333.7 million. Strategy made no Bitcoin purchases or sales over that period, leaving its position unchanged.
Strategy held 840,447 BTC following the reporting period. The position represented approximately 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply cap and was valued at about $53.4 billion at the Bitcoin market price cited with the disclosure. Strategy acquired the position for approximately $63.4 billion including fees and expenses, with an average acquisition price of $75,385 per Bitcoin, leaving roughly $10 billion in paper losses at prevailing prices.
The company allocated the proceeds from its MSTR sales across three uses rather than deploying the money toward additional Bitcoin purchases.
The reserve contribution increased Strategy’s U.S. dollar balance to approximately $4.8 billion. Combined spending on STRC dividends and STRC repurchases totaled $184.6 million. Strategy’s latest activity therefore centered on servicing and managing its broader capital structure while retaining its Bitcoin position.
Bitcoin traded at approximately $63,539 shortly after the filing, up about 1% over the prior 24 hours, while MSTR shares were about 1.3% higher in pre-market trading.
Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor did not publish his customary Strategy Bitcoin tracker chart over the preceding weekend. His regular Sunday posts had historically been used to signal upcoming acquisition announcements, although the pattern had become less consistent as Strategy alternated among Bitcoin purchases, sales and periods when holdings remained unchanged.
Strategy broadens its capital-management framework
Strategy’s Digital Credit Capital Framework permits a wider range of balance-sheet actions alongside its Bitcoin holdings. The framework restricts use of the company’s U.S. dollar reserve to preferred-stock dividends and interest payments and includes an authorized $1 billion repurchase program for its digital credit securities, initially prioritizing STRC.
Strategy has separately approved a $1 billion common-stock repurchase program. The company also expanded its BTC Monetization Program to permit up to $5 billion in Bitcoin sales to fund its reserve, dividends, interest payments and securities repurchases. Strategy did not use that Bitcoin-sale authority during the latest reporting period.
The company also faces a potential change to its eligibility for major equity benchmarks. MSCI is considering a proposed methodology for identifying non-operating companies that could affect digital-asset treasury firms in its Global Investable Market Indexes.
MSCI’s simulation using May 2026 data showed Strategy, Metaplanet and uranium investment company Yellow Cake would be deleted from the MSCI ACWI IMI under the proposal. Sharplink, Center Laboratories and Lydia Holding would instead be placed on a public watchlist.
Bitcoin Treasuries data cited alongside the Strategy disclosure showed 196 public companies had adopted some form of Bitcoin acquisition model. Strategy remained far ahead of the next-largest corporate holders listed in that data.
Twenty One is Tether-backed, while Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company is backed by Adam Back and Cantor Fitzgerald. Shares across the corporate Bitcoin treasury group had fallen significantly from their summer 2025 peaks as market-cap-to-net-asset-value ratios contracted. MSTR remained nearly 80% below its peak, while Strategy reported an enterprise mNAV of 1.04.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund had also increased its indirect Bitcoin exposure to a record 11,549 BTC during the first half of 2026. Strategy accounted for approximately 86% of that exposure, with the fund’s Strategy position valued at roughly $622 million.
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BitMine continues weekly Ethereum purchases
BitMine Immersion followed a different path during the same period, adding 9,926 ETH and increasing its total Ethereum holdings to 5.815 million tokens. The company, which trades under ticker BMNR, said the purchase extended a weekly buying streak that began when its Ethereum treasury strategy launched in June 2025.
BitMine’s holdings represented approximately 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply, placing the company close to its stated 5% target. At an ETH price of approximately $1,904, the position was valued at about $11 billion.
Chairman Tom Lee linked BitMine’s continued Ethereum accumulation to a change in the ETH/BTC ratio, which he said had broken above a years-long downward trend. Lee viewed the move as a sign that investors were beginning to price in increased demand for Ethereum from tokenization and AI-agent applications.
Lee also tied his outlook to broader financial conditions, saying, “easing financial conditions to be a tailwind for crypto.”
ETH was about 1.6% higher over the prior 24 hours when the BitMine figures were reported, while BMNR shares were trading more than 2% higher on the day.
BitMine also repurchased another 1.7 million of its own shares during the week. Those purchases increased its holdings of BMNR stock to 20.8 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion buyback program.
Strategy’s approximately $53.4 billion Bitcoin position remained almost five times the dollar value of BitMine’s Ethereum treasury, while BitMine’s share of Ethereum’s current supply exceeded Strategy’s share of Bitcoin’s maximum supply. Strategy’s percentage is measured against Bitcoin’s hard 21 million-coin cap, while BitMine’s figure refers to Ethereum’s total current supply.
The companies’ latest disclosures showed two different stages of corporate crypto treasury management. Strategy maintained its Bitcoin position while using equity proceeds for cash reserves, preferred-stock obligations and securities repurchases. BitMine remained in active accumulation mode, adding Ethereum while also deploying capital toward BMNR share repurchases.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
