Strategy’s STRC Nears Par as BitMine Amasses $14.2B Crypto Treasury and Bets Big on Ethereum’s Long-Term Upside

Preferred Equity Engineering Meets Aggressive Ethereum Accumulation in Diverging Corporate Crypto Strategies

TL;DR

• Strategy’s STRC preferred shares are trading just below their $100 par value, reinforcing their role as a yield-bearing, Bitcoin-backed financing instrument.
• BitMine Immersion has lifted its crypto and cash holdings to roughly $14.2 billion after adding nearly 33,000 ETH, cementing its position as the world’s largest Ethereum treasury.
• The moves highlight two distinct approaches to corporate crypto exposure: engineered balance-sheet leverage tied to Bitcoin versus outright Ethereum accumulation and staking at scale.

We’ve just launched the all-new COIN360 Perp DEX, built for traders who move fast!

Trade 130+ assets with up to 100× leverage, enjoy instant order placement and low-slippage swaps, and earn USDC passive yield while climbing the leaderboard. Your trades deserve more than speed — they deserve mastery.

Strategy’s STRC preferred shares were trading near $99.89 in early January 2026, hovering within cents of their $100 par value as the instrument continued to behave exactly as designed. The stock’s stability has drawn attention because STRC is not meant to trade like a typical equity but rather as a yield-bearing security engineered to stay close to par, with dividend adjustments acting as the stabilizing mechanism. With an effective annual yield of roughly 11% and relatively muted volatility for a crypto-adjacent instrument, STRC has increasingly been described by market participants as a kind of synthetic balance-sheet tool, allowing Strategy to raise capital without diluting common shareholders while maintaining exposure to Bitcoin’s upside. 

Recent disclosures show the company added 1,287 BTC between December 29 and December 31, lifting its total Bitcoin holdings to approximately 673,783 BTC, while simultaneously increasing its cash reserves by about $62 million to $2.25 billion. STRC itself has been actively traded, with notional value approaching $3 billion and average daily dollar volumes in the tens of millions, reflecting sustained institutional interest as Bitcoin’s crypto price remained range-bound relative to broader swings across the coin market cap landscape.

The mechanics behind STRC underscore why the instrument has remained tightly anchored to par. Proceeds from preferred share issuance are funneled directly into Bitcoin purchases, effectively allowing Strategy to borrow against future dividend obligations to accumulate more BTC today. At current terms, selling $100,000 worth of STRC supports the acquisition of roughly one Bitcoin at similar prices, while committing the company to annual dividend payments of around $11,000. The asymmetry becomes clear over longer horizons: even modest appreciation in Bitcoin’s crypto price dramatically outweighs the fixed dividend burden, a structure that has kept STRC trading near $100 despite shifts in the broader crypto price index. Technical analysts have noted that as long as Bitcoin avoids sharp downside volatility, STRC is likely to continue oscillating tightly around par, reinforcing its appeal to yield-focused investors seeking indirect exposure to crypto markets without the full price swings seen elsewhere.

While Strategy continues refining a Bitcoin-centric capital model, BitMine Immersion has taken a far more aggressive stance on Ethereum accumulation. During the final week of 2025, the company added approximately 32,977 ETH, lifting its total Ethereum holdings to about 4.14 million ETH as of early January. At prevailing market prices, that stash represents more than $13 billion in value and roughly 3.4% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, making BitMine the largest known corporate holder of ETH globally. Combined with 192 BTC worth around $18 million and nearly $915 million in cash, BitMine’s total crypto and cash reserves now stand at approximately $14.2 billion. The scale of accumulation has been striking even as overall market activity slowed toward year-end, signaling a deliberate strategy to build exposure while liquidity conditions elsewhere softened across the coin market cap spectrum.

Ethereum staking has become a central pillar of BitMine’s thesis. The company has already staked more than 659,000 ETH, valued at roughly $2.1 billion, positioning itself to generate substantial yield on top of capital appreciation. At current network rates, annual staking income could approach $374 million once operations are fully scaled, supported by the planned launch of its Made in America Validator Network in early 2026. Equity markets have taken notice, with BitMine shares posting sharp gains following the latest disclosures and average daily trading volumes reaching levels more commonly associated with large-cap stocks. Management has also moved to expand strategic flexibility, calling a shareholder vote to increase authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion, a step framed as necessary to support future capital raises, potential stock splits, and selective acquisitions.

Forward-looking commentary from BitMine leadership has amplified attention on the company’s Ethereum bet. Chairman Tom Lee has publicly projected a long-term Ethereum price target of $250,000, framing ETH as an asset with structural scarcity, yield, and institutional relevance that remains underappreciated by traditional valuation models. While such forecasts remain speculative, the underlying data points are tangible: BitMine continues to accumulate ETH at a pace unmatched by other corporates and is closing in on its stated goal of controlling 5% of circulating supply. Together, Strategy’s finely tuned preferred-share financing and BitMine’s outright Ethereum accumulation illustrate how corporate crypto strategies are diverging, even as both firms seek to position themselves for long-term gains amid shifting crypto price dynamics and an evolving crypto price index that increasingly reflects institutional participation.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.