Strategy and BitMine Both Pause Buying Amid Price Slump

Strategy has not bought a single Bitcoin since June 22. BitMine posted its smallest Ethereum purchase of the year. Both happened in the same week and both for the same underlying reason.

The parallel slowdown puts a spotlight on the structural limits of the corporate crypto treasury model at a moment when the assets these companies have staked their identity on are trading well below their cost basis.

What Happened This Week

Strategy disclosed in an SEC 8-K filing on July 20 that it made no Bitcoin purchases or sales during the week of July 13–19, 2026, leaving its treasury unchanged at 843,775 BTC.

Instead, the company sold 2.73 million shares of Class A common stock through its at-the-market (ATM) offering program, generating $263.5 million in net proceeds. The funds went directly into its USD cash reserve, now standing at $3.2 billion, enough to cover an estimated 20.4 months of preferred stock dividends and debt obligations.

This follows a pattern that began in late June. Between June 30 and early July, Strategy sold 3,588 BTC at prices between $59,000 and $61,000 to raise liquidity – well below its average acquisition cost of $75,476 per coin. The company expects to report an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its digital asset holdings for Q2 2026, with the carrying value of its Bitcoin position estimated at $49.67 billion against a total investment of $63.69 billion.

BitMine Immersion (BMNR) reported adding just 7,430 ETH during the same week – its smallest weekly purchase since the company adopted its Ethereum treasury strategy in 2025.

The company, chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, currently holds 5.77 million ETH, representing approximately 4.8% of the total ETH supply, with around 85% of those holdings actively staked through its institutional platform MAVAN. Annualized staking revenue is estimated at $242 million. BitMine also repurchased 5.5 million of its own shares during the week.

BMNR shares have fallen roughly 50% year-to-date and are down approximately 89% from their all-time high. In early June, when ETH slipped below $1,800, the company was sitting on an estimated $8.9 billion in unrealized losses.

Why Both Companies Slowed Down at the Same Time

Both Strategy and BitMine depend on equity markets to fund crypto purchases. They issue new shares or debt at favorable terms, use the proceeds to buy BTC or ETH, and repeat.

• When share prices are high relative to the underlying crypto, the model generates significant buying power.
• When share prices fall alongside crypto prices, the math deteriorates quickly.

Strategy's annual dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion, according to CryptoQuant, while its cash reserves fell 38% during 2026. Dividend coverage has collapsed from over seven years to approximately 14 months. Raising fresh capital through equity at depressed share prices would dilute existing shareholders without generating meaningful purchasing power, so the company is instead conserving cash.

Meanwhile, BitMine financed its ETH accumulation primarily through equity issuance rather than debt, leaving it without the same leverage-driven interest obligations that weigh on Strategy. However, the company still trades at a significant discount to its net asset value. One analyst noted investors are effectively buying $1 of ETH for roughly $0.65 through BMNR shares, a discount the market applies to account for dilution risk and the structural costs of running a listed treasury vehicle.

Both companies, in other words, cannot buy more of the assets they are supposed to accumulate continuously, precisely when prices are at their weakest point of the cycle.

The Question This Week Raises

A treasury strategy, by definition, is meant to accumulate consistently regardless of market conditions. That is the core promise both companies have sold to investors – disciplined, systematic buying that a retail investor cannot replicate at the same scale, funded by the capital-raising capacity of a listed company.

The distinction matters for investors who are paying a premium to hold these stocks rather than buying BTC or ETH directly. When the model works as described, that premium is justified by the compounding effect of institutional-scale accumulation and, in BitMine's case, staking yield on top. When the model stalls, the premium loses its rationale.

Neither company has indicated this is a permanent shift.

• Strategy's $3.2 billion cash reserve is designed precisely to provide a buffer that allows it to weather downturns without forced asset sales.
• BitMine continues to generate staking revenue while holding one of the largest single ETH positions of any public company.

The July 29 Federal Reserve meeting, where markets are currently pricing a 75–80% probability of a rate hold, is widely seen as the next macro catalyst that could either extend or break the current period of caution.

Sources

• DailyCoin – Strategy Pauses Bitcoin Buying Again as It Turns to Stock Market for Liquidity https://dailycoin.com/strategy-pauses-bitcoin-buying-again-as-it-turns-to-stock-market-for-liquidity/
• CoinDesk – Bitmine's Ethereum bet nears $9 billion loss as ether falls below $1,800 https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/03/bitmine-s-ethereum-bet-nears-usd9-billion-loss-as-ether-falls-below-usd1-800
• Seeking Alpha – The Bitmine Immersion Discount Is Dangerous https://seekingalpha.com/article/4921130-the-bitmine-immersion-discount-is-dangerous-upgrade