The cryptocurrency market surged, with the two largest cryptocurrency treasury companies choosing different paths.

Written by: Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Last week, influenced by the decline in U.S. Treasury yields, the rekindling of optimism in the U.S. cryptocurrency market, and a wave of short liquidations, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum surged significantly. Bitcoin's price rose over 20%, nearing $80,000 at one point; Ethereum increased by about 30% in a week, marking its strongest weekly performance since May 2025.

This round of growth attracted a substantial influx of new capital, with billions of dollars in short positions being forced to close, and both major cryptocurrencies reaching price highs not seen in months.

Interestingly, during this breakout, the operations of two leading cryptocurrency treasury companies displayed significant divergence. Strategy, the world's largest Bitcoin holding company, capitalized on the hot market to complete financing, but did not increase its Bitcoin holdings; meanwhile, BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest Ethereum treasury company, continued to buy Ethereum during the upward trend.

Strategy Takes Advantage of Upward Trend to Build a $6.7 Billion Cash Cushion

This time, Strategy chose not to participate in this major upward wave of Bitcoin, while simultaneously completing the largest round of financing in its history, gaining the highest level of deployable cash since it began its Bitcoin investments.

Between August 17 and August 23, Strategy raised approximately $2.01 billion in net financing by selling 18.26 million shares of MSTR common stock. The company did not reinvest this capital into Bitcoin: $300 million was allocated to its existing dollar reserve account, $136.4 million was used to repurchase STRC preferred shares, and the vast majority of the remaining funds were allocated to a newly established dollar cash account.

As of August 23, the company's liquidity in dollars totaled $6.69 billion: $5.1 billion in dollar reserves and $1.59 billion in the newly established dollar cash pool.

The two accounts have clear divisions of responsibility, allowing Strategy's operational capabilities to be much larger than the cash figures suggest:

• Dollar Reserve (USD Reserve): Mainly used for paying dividends on preferred shares and interest on debt;
• Dollar Cash Account (USD Cash): Can be used to buy Bitcoin, repurchase MSTR common or preferred shares, repay convertible bonds, and carry out other treasury operations.

Strategy stated that the new liquidity would help the company respond more quickly to market fluctuations, including severe volatility in Bitcoin itself or its own securities.

During this round of market activity, the price of Bitcoin returned above Strategy's average holding cost of $75,385. The company currently holds a total of 840,447 Bitcoins, with a total acquisition cost of approximately $6.336 billion, but in such a favorable week for capital markets, it did not acquire a single additional Bitcoin.（

Value of Strategy's Bitcoin holdings, data source: SaylorTracker

Part of the raised funds was used to repurchase 1.431 million STRC preferred shares. Now, Strategy's capital allocation strategy is no longer limited to the single model of "issuing stock to buy Bitcoin."

The company still has $516.6 million available for subsequent repurchases of preferred shares, and another $1 billion authorized for repurchasing MSTR common shares. Holding billions of dollars in cash means Strategy can quietly wait for Bitcoin to hit lower prices, for its own securities to trade at a discount, or for other investment opportunities before deploying its funds.

BitMine Continues Buying Ethereum Even After 30% Surge

BitMine took a completely opposite route. Faced with the strongest single-week rise in Ethereum in over a year, it did not wait for a pullback, but continued to add to its positions.

This week, the company purchased another 32,447 ETH. As of August 23, its total Ethereum holdings reached 5.85 million coins, representing about 4.8% of the total circulating supply of Ethereum, very close to its publicly stated goal of holding 5% of all Ethereum.

Since launching its Ethereum accumulation plan in June 2025, BitMine has been consistently buying weekly even as prices have risen sharply. This round saw Ethereum's weekly increase of about 30%, with prices moving back above $2,400.

Chairman Tom Lee believes this round of increases marks the beginning of a larger market trend and argues that buying should not stop due to short-term surges. He reflected on history since 2021, noting that Ethereum had two similar instances of single-week surges, followed by several months of even greater increases.

BitMine has staked the vast majority of its Ethereum: approximately 5.07 million ETH (87% of treasury positions) are staked, allowing it to benefit from both price appreciation and staking rewards.

Tom Lee stated, "On an annualized basis, staking income is expected to reach $330 million."

BitMine's ETH staking rewards, data source: BitMine

This gives BitMine greater aggressive operational space. Bitcoin itself does not generate native yield, while Strategy must bear heavy preferred share dividends and interest payment pressures, requiring it to maintain a large amount of cash; in contrast, BitMine has only $308 million in cash and securities, with its balance sheet almost entirely betting on Ethereum.

After last week's market activity, the strategic contrast between the two companies was further magnified: Strategy took advantage of the hot market to raise funds and hoard cash, leaving a buffer for future market volatility; BitMine, on the other hand, used the same market conditions to make significant strides toward its goal of 5% of ETH's total supply, essentially betting that the current rally in Ethereum is far from over.