Public companies hold 1.26 million BTC, 5.85 million ETH, and 17.6 million SOL on their balance sheets as of August 2026. The combined value exceeds $100 billion. But the corporate crypto treasury trade that defined 2024-2025 has fractured. Most companies that bought at or near all-time highs are...
"This upside move in ETH was overdue given the strengthening fundamentals in crypto, the multiple tailwinds of Wall Street tokenization, and agentic-AI." — Tom Lee, Chairman, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (August 24, 2026)
Public companies hold 1.26 million BTC, 5.85 million ETH, and 17.6 million SOL on their balance sheets as of August 2026. The combined value exceeds $100 billion. But the corporate crypto treasury trade that defined 2024-2025 has fractured. Most companies that bought at or near all-time highs are now selling to cover debt, fund operations, or pivot to AI infrastructure. Strategy Inc. (MSTR) sold 6,916 BTC year-to-date. MARA Holdings offloaded 23,093 BTC for $1.63 billion. Bitdeer reduced holdings to 31 BTC. Genius Group exited entirely.
One firm moved in the opposite direction. Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, added 32,447 ETH last week — an $81 million purchase — bringing total holdings to 5,847,611 tokens, or 4.8% of Ethereum's circulating supply. The company has bought ETH every week for 60 consecutive weeks. It now stakes 87% of its position through its MAVAN validator network, generating $330 million in projected annualized staking revenue. The divergence between sellers and this single persistent buyer defines the current state of corporate crypto treasuries.
As of June 22, 2026, 199 public companies held 1.264 million BTC worth approximately $79 billion, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. That figure represents over 6% of Bitcoin's 21 million fixed supply. Ethereum treasury companies grew token holdings by 77% between September 2025 and March 2026. Bitcoin treasury companies grew by 17.1% over the same period.
The problem: most of the buying occurred near cycle highs. Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $124,720 on October 6, 2025. By spring 2026, it had declined approximately 41%. Ethereum fell from above $4,000 to below $2,000 before rebounding to $2,440 in the August rally.
The top five corporate BTC holders as of mid-2026:
| Company | Ticker | BTC Holdings | Approx. Value | |---------|--------|-------------|---------------| | Strategy Inc. | MSTR | 840,447 | $67.0B | | Twenty One Capital | XXI | 43,514 | $3.5B | | Metaplanet | 3350.T | 43,000 | $3.4B | | MARA Holdings | MARA | 35,577 | $2.8B | | Bullish | BLSH | 24,300 | $1.9B |
The concentration is stark. Strategy alone holds approximately 66% of all publicly-held corporate Bitcoin. Outside Strategy, corporate BTC buying has effectively stopped. According to BitcoinMiningStock.io, the share of weekly purchases from companies other than Strategy declined to 2% by early 2026, down from 95% in October 2025.
Strategy Inc. broke its 13-week consecutive buying streak in mid-2026 and began selling Bitcoin for the first time in the company's five-year accumulation history. Between late July and early August, the company sold 6,916 BTC for approximately $430 million at average prices between $63,957 and $64,262 per coin. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor stated the sales funded dividend obligations on the company's STRF and STRC preferred equity instruments.
The company still holds 840,447 BTC — the largest corporate position — but the shift from buyer to seller carries symbolic weight. Strategy's stock, which peaked near $500 in late 2024, traded around $82 by June 2026, a decline of approximately 85%.
MARA Holdings made the sharpest turn. The mining company sold 23,093 BTC for $1.63 billion in H1 2026, reducing its treasury from 53,822 BTC (end of 2025) to 35,577 BTC (June 30, 2026). MARA expanded its treasury policy to permit selling existing holdings, not just newly mined coins. The company used proceeds to repurchase convertible debt and fund infrastructure, including an Ohio power plant acquisition. It pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral for a $750 million borrowing facility from Coinbase and Two Prime.
Other exits were more complete:
While Bitcoin treasury companies retreated, Bitmine Immersion Technologies accelerated Ethereum purchases. The company's August 24 press release disclosed holdings of 5,847,611 ETH, valued at approximately $14.27 billion based on the $2,440 ETH price. The position represents 4.8% of Ethereum's 120.7 million circulating supply. Total company assets, including cash, marketable securities, and equity stakes, reached $14.9 billion.
Bitmine has purchased ETH every week without interruption for 60 consecutive weeks since launching its treasury strategy in June 2025. Weekly acquisitions have ranged from $14 million to $235 million. The company's stated goal — what Chairman Tom Lee calls the "Alchemy of 5%" — is to accumulate 5% of total ETH supply, equivalent to approximately 6.035 million tokens. With 187,000 ETH remaining to reach that threshold, the target could be reached within several weeks at the current acquisition pace.
The latest weekly purchase of 32,447 ETH for $81 million was the largest single-week haul since early July. Lee attributed the timing to what he described as improving fundamentals, citing "Wall Street tokenization and agentic-AI" as structural tailwinds.
Bitmine's balance sheet beyond ETH includes 210 BTC (~$13.4 million), a $180 million equity stake in Beast Industries, an $89 million stake in Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS), and $308 million in cash and marketable securities. Institutional backers include ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Digital Currency Group.
The corporate crypto treasury model of 2024-2025 relied on a specific financial mechanism: companies trading at a premium to the net asset value (NAV) of their crypto holdings could issue equity, use the proceeds to buy more crypto, and create a self-reinforcing cycle. The key metric — market-to-net-asset-value, or mNAV — determined whether this loop worked.
Strategy's mNAV peaked at 3x-4x during the 2024 bull run. By spring 2026, it had fallen to approximately 1.16x. By June 2026, the enterprise mNAV dropped below 1.0 for the first time, according to CoinDesk. At that point, Strategy's enterprise value of approximately $50.4 billion sat below the $51.1 billion value of its Bitcoin holdings. Issuing new equity to buy Bitcoin became dilutive to existing shareholders.
Metaplanet's stock fell 42% year-to-date and 85% over 12 months by June 2026. CEO Simon Gerovich indicated the company would consider share buybacks if mNAV remained under 1.0 — a signal the 2024-2025 playbook had stopped working. Twenty One Capital's stock collapsed from $47 at its April 2025 listing to $5.50 by June 2026, prompting controlling shareholder Tether to propose a merger with Strike and Elektron Energy to attach the treasury to revenue-generating businesses.
Bitmine's mNAV hovered near 1.01 — essentially no premium. The company responded not by issuing equity at a premium but by implementing a dividend strategy on its BMNP preferred shares (9.50% coupon) funded by staking income.
The structural difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury strategies emerges in yield generation. Bitcoin produces no native yield. Companies holding BTC on their balance sheets rely entirely on price appreciation or must sell holdings to meet financial obligations — precisely the dynamic forcing Strategy and MARA into sales.
Bitmine stakes 5,067,309 ETH — 87% of its total position — through MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network), its proprietary institutional staking platform. The 7-day annualized yield was 2.67% as of August 23, generating projected annualized staking revenue of $330 million at current ETH prices. At full deployment, the company projects $381 million in annualized staking income.
Lee has stated that staking rewards "easily cover" Bitmine's obligations to preferred shareholders, which amount to approximately $30-35 million in annual dividends. The company has said it does not need to sell ETH to meet financial obligations — a contrast with Strategy's Bitcoin sales to fund preferred stock dividends.
The staking model introduces a different set of risks. Validator slashing, smart contract vulnerabilities, regulatory classification of staking income, and ETH price volatility all remain material concerns. Bitmine's concentrated 4.8% position in a single asset also creates liquidity risk: unwinding a position that large without moving the market would be difficult.
MAVAN's scale makes it one of the largest Ethereum staking operations globally. When Bitmine first began staking in January 2026, the influx triggered what CoinDesk reported as an "$8 billion staking backlog" on the Ethereum network.
The corporate crypto treasury sector has entered a phase of consolidation and forced rationalization. The virtuous cycle of 2024-2025 — issue equity at premium mNAV, buy crypto, watch mNAV expand — reversed when prices fell and premiums disappeared. Most companies are now net sellers, using crypto holdings to service debt, fund operations, or finance strategic pivots to AI infrastructure.
Bitmine represents an alternative model predicated on yield rather than price appreciation alone. Whether a 4.8% position in a single asset with $330 million in annual staking revenue constitutes a durable business model or an outsized concentration risk remains to be tested across a full market cycle. The company has not yet faced a scenario where it needed to liquidate a meaningful portion of its position.
The data shows a sector splitting along a clear line: companies with revenue-generating strategies for their crypto holdings versus those relying solely on price appreciation in a declining market. The former group, as of August 2026, consists of essentially one company.